_stricmp, _wcsicmp, _mbsicmp

Perform a lowercase comparison of strings.

int _stricmp( const char *string1, const char *string2 );

int _wcsicmp( const wchar_t *string1, const wchar_t *string2 );

int _mbsicmp( const unsigned char *string1, const unsigned char_t *string2 );

Routine	Required Header	Compatibility
_stricmp	<string.h>	Win 95, Win NT
_wcsicmp	<string.h> or <wchar.h>	Win 95, Win NT
_mbsicmp	<mbstring.h>	Win 95, Win NT

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Libraries

LIBC.LIB	Single thread static library, retail version
LIBCMT.LIB	Multithread static library, retail version
MSVCRT.LIB	Import library for MSVCRT.DLL, retail version

Return Value

The return value indicates the relation of string1 to string2 as follows.

Return Value	Description
< 0	string1 less than string2
0	string1 identical to string2
> 0	string1 greater than string2

On an error, _mbsicmp returns _NLSCMPERROR, which is defined in STRING.H and MBSTRING.H.

Parameters

string1, string2

Null-terminated strings to compare

Remarks

The _stricmp function lexicographically compares lowercase versions of string1 and string2 and returns a value indicating their relationship. _stricmp differs from _stricoll in that the _stricmp comparison is not affected by locale, whereas the _stricoll comparison is according to the LC_COLLATE category of the current locale. For more information on the LC_COLLATE category, see setlocale.

The _strcmpi function is equivalent to _stricmp and is provided for backward compatibility only.

_wcsicmp and _mbsicmp are wide-character and multibyte-character versions of _stricmp. The arguments and return value of _wcsicmp are wide-character strings; those of _mbsicmp are multibyte-character strings. _mbsicmp recognizes multibyte-character sequences according to the current multibyte code page and returns _NLSCMPERROR on an error. (For more information, see Code Pages.) These three functions behave identically otherwise.

_wcsicmp and wcscmp behave identically except that wcscmp does not convert its arguments to lowercase before comparing them. _mbsicmp and _mbscmp behave identically except that _mbscmp does not convert its arguments to lowercase before comparing them.

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H Routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS Not Defined	_MBCS Defined	_UNICODE Defined
_tcsicmp	_stricmp	_mbsicmp	_wcsicmp

Example

/* STRCMP.C */

#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>

char string1[] = "The quick brown dog jumps over the lazy fox";
char string2[] = "The QUICK brown dog jumps over the lazy fox";

void main( void )
{
   char tmp[20];
   int result;
   /* Case sensitive */
   printf( "Compare strings:\n\t%s\n\t%s\n\n", string1, string2 );
   result = strcmp( string1, string2 );
   if( result > 0 )
      strcpy( tmp, "greater than" );
   else if( result < 0 )
      strcpy( tmp, "less than" );
   else
      strcpy( tmp, "equal to" );
   printf( "\tstrcmp:   String 1 is %s string 2\n", tmp );
   /* Case insensitive (could use equivalent _stricmp) */
   result = _stricmp( string1, string2 );
   if( result > 0 )
      strcpy( tmp, "greater than" );
   else if( result < 0 )
      strcpy( tmp, "less than" );
   else
      strcpy( tmp, "equal to" );
   printf( "\t_stricmp:  String 1 is %s string 2\n", tmp );
}

Output

Compare strings:
   The quick brown dog jumps over the lazy fox
   The QUICK brown dog jumps over the lazy fox

   strcmp:   String 1 is greater than string 2
   _stricmp:  String 1 is equal to string 2

String Manipulation Routines