The C library function int strcmp(const char *str1, const char *str2) compares the string pointed to by str1 to the string pointed to by str2.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for strcmp() function.

Code:
int strcmp(const char *str1, const char *str2)
Parameters

str1 -- This is the first string to be compared.

str2 -- This is the second string to be compared.

Return Value

This function returned values are as follows:

if Return value if < 0 then it indicates str1 is less than str2

if Return value if > 0 then it indicates str2 is less than str1

if Return value if = 0 then it indicates str1 is equal to str2

Example

The following example shows the usage of strncmp() function.
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main ()
{
   char str1[15];
   char str2[15];
   int ret;


   strcpy(str1, "abcdef");
   strcpy(str2, "ABCDEF");

   ret = strcmp(str1, str2);

   if(ret > 0)
   {
      printf("str1 is less than str2");
   }
   else if(ret < 0) 
   {
      printf("str2 is less than str1");
   }
   else 
   {
      printf("str1 is equal to str2");
   }
   
   return(0);
}
Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result:
Code:
str1 is less than str2