How to cut part of a string in c?

Question

I\'m trying to figure out how to cut part of a string in C. For example you have this character string \"The dog died because a car hit him while it was crossing the road\" how

Answer 1

For such problem, it is better to write own function, it will take time, but it will pay off. A code of a function str_slice is shown below, is very similar to the JavaScripts's function string.slice (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/slice) and to the Python's feature for making a slice on strings or arrays (https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/functions.html#slice).

It also based only on the C standard library, so must be cross-platform and to working with any compiler. If in doubt, to look on tests.

#include 
#include 
#include 


/**
 * Extracts a selection of string and return a new string or NULL.
 * It supports both negative and positive indexes.
 */
char *
str_slice(char str[], int slice_from, int slice_to)
{
    // if a string is empty, returns nothing
    if (str[0] == '\0')
        return NULL;

    char *buffer;
    size_t str_len, buffer_len;

    // for negative indexes "slice_from" must be less "slice_to"
    if (slice_to < 0 && slice_from < slice_to) {
        str_len = strlen(str);

        // if "slice_to" goes beyond permissible limits
        if (abs(slice_to) > str_len - 1)
            return NULL;

        // if "slice_from" goes beyond permissible limits
        if (abs(slice_from) > str_len)
            slice_from = (-1) * str_len;

        buffer_len = slice_to - slice_from;
        str += (str_len + slice_from);

    // for positive indexes "slice_from" must be more "slice_to"
    } else if (slice_from >= 0 && slice_to > slice_from) {
        str_len = strlen(str);

        // if "slice_from" goes beyond permissible limits
        if (slice_from > str_len - 1)
            return NULL;

        buffer_len = slice_to - slice_from;
        str += slice_from;

    // otherwise, returns NULL
    } else
        return NULL;

    buffer = calloc(buffer_len, sizeof(char));
    strncpy(buffer, str, buffer_len);
    return buffer;
}

---

Tests

#include 

void
test_str_slice()
{
    char str[] = "abcdefghijkl";

    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -3, -10));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -1, -2));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -1, 0));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 1, 0));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 5, 4));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 0, 0));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 10, 10));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -2, -2));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -20, -12));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, -20, -13));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 12, 13));
    assert(NULL == str_slice(str, 12, 20));
    assert(NULL == str_slice("", 1, 2));
    assert(NULL == str_slice("", -2, -1));
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -3, -1), "jk") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -8, -3), "efghi") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -10, -9), "c") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -2, -1), "k") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -15, -1), "abcdefghijk") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -12, -2), "abcdefghij") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -15, -8), "abcd") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, -15, -11), "a") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 1, 3), "bc") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 11, 100), "l") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 2, 4), "cd") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 3, 6), "def") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 0, 1), "a") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 4, 6), "ef") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 1, 2), "b") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 0, 3), "abc") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 0, 11), "abcdefghijk") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 2, 10), "cdefghij") == 0);
    assert(strcmp(str_slice(str, 0, 50), "abcdefghijkl") == 0);
}

As you can see in the tests, the function to returns a string or NULL. It also has support both negative and positive indexes. This idea taken from the mentioned early features from the JavaScript and Python. So, do not pollute this answer large amount of a text, I to recommend to you to read the docs of the JavaScript and the Python.