Sockets and multi string comparison

Hello,

I have a socket server program which takes things like CMD:hci_scan as input into a char *
and i would like to know how i could differentiate between all the different commands and i do know that you cant simply use a switch because a switch can only compare numerical data (and character constants, which, in terms of C are pretty much numbers)

so, my question is how do i efficiently make a server than can take a bunch of commands without using strcmp heaps

thanks for your help!

hmm i have found while searching that i could create a function map where the string is the key and a pointer to the function is the value

could you give me a few tips on how would start to go about this?

thanks

if you are thinking of the C++ STL type "std::map" you are in the wrong forumsection, otherwise: read on.

tip #1
compare parts of strings (char *):

Code:

---

#include <string.h>

char *foobar = "hello world!";

if (strncmp("hello", foobar, 4) == 0) { ... }

---

tip #2
function callbacks:

Code:

---

void (my_exit_callback)(int);
my_func_callback = &exit; /* assign callback-pointer with the address of exit-function */

my_func_callback(0); /* exit with code 0 */

---

tip #3
put all information in a struct, then put all your pairs into an array which you can easily loop through to find the correct callback function.

Code:

---

struct foobar {
  char *cmd_key;
  void (*cmd_handler)(char *);
}

struct foobar callbacks[] = {
  {"PRINT", &print_handler},
  {"EXIT", &exit_handler}
};

---

wow thanks for your help... as it turns out just tip #1 was cool enough :) i ended up not having that many commands... for now :)

anyway, i love this forum it is sooooo good as a C resource!!!!

thanks!