wcscmp() — Compare wide-character strings

Standards

Standards / Extensions	C or C++	Dependencies
ISO C Amendment XPG4 XPG4.2 C99 Single UNIX Specification, Version 3	both

Format

#include <wchar.h>

int wcscmp(const wchar_t *string1, const wchar_t *string2);

General description

Compares two wide-character strings. The wcscmp() function operates on NULL-terminated wide-character strings. The string arguments to this function must contain a wide NULL character marking the end of the string.

The behavior of this wide-character function is affected by the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale. If you change the category, undefined results can occur.

Returned value

wcscmp() returns a value indicating the relationship between the two strings, as follows:

Value: Meaning
< 0: string pointed to by string1 less than string pointed to by string2
= 0: string pointed to by string1 identical to string pointed to by string2
> 0: string pointed to by string1 greater than string pointed to by string2

Example

CELEBW06

⁄* CELEBW06                                      

   This example compares the wide character string string1 to                   
   string2 using &wcscmp..                                                      
                                                                                
 *⁄                                                                             
#include <stdio.h>                                                              
#include <wchar.h>                                                              
                                                                                
int main(void)                                                                  
{                                                                               
  int  result;                                                                  
  wchar_t string1[] = L"abcdef";                                                
  wchar_t string2[] = L"abcdefg";                                               
                                                                                
  result = wcscmp( string1, string2 );                                          
                                                                                
  if ( result == 0 )                                                            
    printf( "\"%ls\" is identical to \"%ls\"\n", string1, string2);             
  else if ( result < 0 )                                                        
    printf( "\"%ls\" is less than \"%ls\"\n", string1, string2 );               
  else                                                                          
    printf( "\"%ls\" is greater than \"%ls\"\n", string1, string2);             
}

Output:

"abcdef" is less than "abcdefg"