Re: convert this code

[Barbara Morris <bmorris@xxxxxxxxxx>]

James Rich wrote:
>
> Hmm... I didn't even know about the strtok() function.  Oh here's why -
> from the man page:
>
> BUGS
>        Never use these functions. If you do, note that:
>
>               These functions modify their first argument.
>
>               The identity of the delimiting character is lost.
>
>               These functions cannot be used on constant strings.
>
>               The  strtok()  function  uses a static buffer while
>               parsing, so it's not thread safe. Use strtok_r() if
>               this matters to you.

James, your function has two of those problems.  It modifies the "line"
argument (completely destroying it, which is much worse than what strtok
does), and it can't be used on a constant string.  But these two
problems with strtok can be handled as easily as the thread-safety one:
just copy the source string to a temporary string and parse the temp.

The only real problem with strtok is the one about the delimiting
character being
lost.  This problem can also be solved by copying to a temp.  Doing this
one single copy would be WAY less copying than your function has - your
function repeatedly copies the source string to itself (shorter and
shorter amounts each time) AND it copies the source string into the
token strings.  (If that last copy is necessary, you can still do it
using strtok).