Thread: Which of the C 'Standard Library headers' are worth rembering?

Off the top of my head, for C I remember the following:

• stdio.h
• stdlib.h
• malloc.h
• string.h
• ctype.h
• limits.h

The most important ones for basic things are stdio.h, stdlib.h, and string.h.

FILE is just a struct of some sort. Types like size_t are usually typedefs to something like long int's on 32-bit systems and long long int's on 64-bit systems. Use those types where appropriate since you can't be sure they are compatible with other built in types if you want to be portable for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Originally Posted by MacGyver

Off the top of my head, for C I remember the following:

• stdio.h
• stdlib.h
• malloc.h
• string.h
• ctype.h
• limits.h

That one isn't standard.

Ravens'sWrath: I'd say all of them -- but pace yourself. I am.

[edit]And...

Originally Posted by MacGyver

FILE is just a struct of some sort. Types like size_t

[Again to OP]...types such as FILE or size_t are opaque. You are intentionally not supposed to look up the skirt of the implementation. Partial details may be given, but you're not supposed to place emphasis on them.

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

That one isn't standard.

Good point. If it exists, stdlib.h includes it, I believe.

I never memorize... F1+msdn

Originally Posted by vart

I never memorize... F1+msdn

Is the new MSDN better about documenting when and where it wanders off the standards? It seems to me some recent visits have shown this, but the old version(s) I don't remember as being as well done.

[edit]And I can't memorize anymore either. I just make a lot of mistakes.

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

Is the new MSDN better about documenting when and where it wanders off the standards? It seems to me some recent visits have shown this, but the old version(s) I don't remember as being as well done.

[edit]And I can't memorize anymore either. I just make a lot of mistakes.

I don't know... I use Oct 2001 offline issue

Code:

strlen, wcslen, _mbslen, _mbstrlen
Get the length of a string.

size_t strlen( const char *string );

size_t wcslen( const wchar_t *string );

size_t _mbslen( const unsigned char *string );

size_t _mbstrlen( const char *string );

Routine                  Required Header                   Compatibility 
strlen                     <string.h>                              ANSI, Win 95, Win NT 
wcslen                   <string.h> or <wchar.h>        ANSI, Win 95, Win NT 
_mbslen                 <mbstring.h>                         Win 95, Win NT 
_mbstrlen               <stdlib.h>                              Win 95, Win NT

Wow, MSDN certainly doesn't look like that anymore. Now it's just bloated with .NET stuff and it's very hard to find what your looking for.

Originally Posted by zacs7

Wow, MSDN certainly doesn't look like that anymore. Now it's just bloated with .NET stuff and it's very hard to find what your looking for.

Wll of course you have to use Google to search it instead of MS's own search.

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

[edit]And I can't memorize anymore either. I just make a lot of mistakes.

I can't even always remember the order of parameters for functions like memset().

At 4:00am or so, I'm sitting and trying to remember which argument is the second one and which one is the third.

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

Wll of course you have to use Google to search it instead of MS's own search.

LOL. So true, it's funny.

I'm sure that's quite commonly noticed. Way to really find something on MSDN is to query the function name in google with "MSDN" somewhere in the search string.

Do Microsoft plan on replacing Win32 with .NET? Cause it certainly seems that way. Native Win32 controls are being overtaken with .NET controls, and the Win32API is being masked by .NETs API.

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

Wll of course you have to use Google to search it instead of MS's own search.

MS search in the online version is killing me... Even when I enter some english phrase it tries to bring results in Russian only (partly understandable) or in French - no excuse at all... brrrr...

I can't even always remember the order of parameters for functions like memset().

VisualAssist will do it for you

I'm sure that's quite commonly noticed. Way to really find something on MSDN is to query the function name in google with "MSDN" somewhere in the search string.

In google you can narrow your search to some domain...