Thread: how do i compare first letters in two strings?

I have two pointers to a string

Code:

char *name1;
char *name2;

user imputs the names. How do i use strcmp function to compare the first letters from two strings, so the function gives me TRUE if name1 and name2 begin with the same letter?

You don't. strcmp will compare the whole entire strings no matter what.

Bonus hint: the first letter of name1 is name1[0] and the first letter of name2 is name2[0].

it does now compile. It says "passins arg 2 of strcmp makes pointer from integer without a cast"

Im using pointers to a string (i have to).

If you ever need to compare a fixed-length of characters in a string, you can use strncmp(); Its the same as strcmp but it takes a third argument, which is the number of characters to compare.

Nothing wrong with using pointers to a string, but try and pay attention: you cannot solve this problem with strcmp. Strcmp operates on an entire string, not just the first character. To test characters for equality, you use ==.

Here's a hint. This is how you would compare the 3rd letter in two strings:

Code:

if ( str1[2] == str2[2] )

Now if you still can't figure out how to compare the 1st letters, well then I give up.

Surely, you can use strncmp to do that.
eg.
strncmp (name1, name2,1)

it returns 0 zero if they are equal to each other, or less than zero if first one less than second, or greater than zero if it is greater.

Originally Posted by velid

Surely, you can use strncmp to do that.
eg.
strncmp (name1, name2,1)

it returns 0 zero if they are equal to each other, or less than zero if first one less than second, or greater than zero if it is greater.

Yes, you could. But why would you want to? That would be like buying a top of the line $3000 computer with all the bells & whistles and using it just to check E-mail.
Simple is better.