[SOLVED] Strsep with Multiple Delimiters: Strange result

Strsep with Multiple Delimiters: Strange result

I am currently having some strange results when using strsep with multiple delimiters. My delimiters include the TAB character, the space character, as well as > and <.

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

int main()
{
    char buffer[50];
    char *curr_str = NULL;
    const char delim[4] = "\t >";
    //const char delim[4] = "\t ><"; // This does not work
  
    snprintf(buffer, 50, "%s", "echo Hello");
  
    char *str_ptr = buffer;
  
    curr_str = strsep(&str_ptr, delim);
  
    if (curr_str != NULL)
        printf("%s\n", curr_str);

    curr_str = strsep(&str_ptr, delim);
    if (curr_str != NULL)
        printf("%s\n", curr_str);
    return (0);
}

This output is what I expect.

echo 
Hello

However, as soon as I add the '<' character for the delimiter, I get

cho

Somehow, the first character gets cut off. Is there a reason behind why this is occurring?

Thank you.

Solution

The second argument to strsep, delim is a null-terminated string (like all strings in C), so you have to leave space for the terminating character:

const char delim[5] = "\t ><"; // This does work
//const char delim[] = "\t ><"; // or this

If you don't end the string, it will go exploring memory past the array and find many new delimiting characters to use, which is what happened in your case.