lsearch(3) — Linux manual page

lsearch(3)              Library Functions Manual              lsearch(3)

NAME

       lfind, lsearch - linear search of an array

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <search.h>

       void *lfind(const void key[.size], const void base[.size * .nmemb],
                   size_t *nmemb, size_t size,
                   int(*compar)(const void [.size], const void [.size]));
       void *lsearch(const void key[.size], void base[.size * .nmemb],
                   size_t *nmemb, size_t size,
                   int(*compar)(const void [.size], const void [.size]));

DESCRIPTION

       lfind() and lsearch() perform a linear search for key in the
       array base which has *nmemb elements of size bytes each.  The
       comparison function referenced by compar is expected to have two
       arguments which point to the key object and to an array member,
       in that order, and which returns zero if the key object matches
       the array member, and nonzero otherwise.

       If lsearch() does not find a matching element, then the key
       object is inserted at the end of the table, and *nmemb is
       incremented.  In particular, one should know that a matching
       element exists, or that more room is available.

RETURN VALUE

       lfind() returns a pointer to a matching member of the array, or
       NULL if no match is found.  lsearch() returns a pointer to a
       matching member of the array, or to the newly added member if no
       match is found.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌─────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                           │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ lfind(), lsearch()                  │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY

       POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.3BSD.  libc-4.6.27.

BUGS

       The naming is unfortunate.

SEE ALSO

       bsearch(3), hsearch(3), tsearch(3)

COLOPHON

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                     lsearch(3)

Pages that refer to this page: bsearch(3), hsearch(3), tsearch(3)

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