Question

I have the following code:

printf("num: %d\n", strcasecmp(buf, "h\n"));

And I get the following results when I try plugging in different letters:

a: -7
g: -1
i: 1
j: 2
h: 156
H: 156

Should strcasecmp not return 0 when buf is equal to H or h? Any ideas why it’s returning 156? I need to figure out how to check whether the user types H or h.

Thanks!

Edit: I’m reading buf in the following way:
read(0, buf, MAXBUFLEN);

Answer 1

printf("num: %d\n", strcasecmp(buf, "h"));

Why \n at the end, if you want to compare with h or H ?

---

main(){
 char *s = "hH";
 printf("%d\n", strcasecmp(s, "Hh"));
}

0

---

read() also stores whitespace. So, if you are using read, compare with “h\n”.

main(){
 char *buf = malloc(sizeof(char)*10);
 read(0, buf, 10);
 printf("%s %d %d\n", buf, strcasecmp(buf, "h\n"), strcasecmp(buf, "h"));
}

h
h
  0 10

I entered h in the above case.

Also, use strncasecmp if you want to compare a fixed number of characters.