stricmp() — Compare Strings without Case Sensitivity

Format

#include <string.h>
int stricmp(const char *string1, const char *string2);
Note: The stricmp() function is available for C++ programs. It is available for C only when the program defines the __cplusplus__strings__ macro.

Language Level

Extension

Threadsafe

Yes

Locale Sensitive

The behavior of this function might be affected by the LC_CTYPE category of the current locale. For more information, see Understanding CCSIDs and Locales.

Description

The stricmp() function compares string1 and string2 without sensitivity to case. All alphabetic characters in the two arguments string1 and string2 are converted to lowercase before the comparison.

The function operates on null-ended strings. The string arguments to the function are expected to contain a null character (\0) marking the end of the string.

Return Value

The stricmp() function returns a value indicating the relationship between the two strings, as follows:

Table 1. Return values of stricmp()
Value Meaning
Less than 0 string1 less than string2
0 string1 equivalent to string2
Greater than 0 string1 greater than string2

Example

This example uses stricmp() to compare two strings. 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(void)
{
   /* Compare two strings as lowercase                              */
   if (0 == stricmp("hello", "HELLO"))
      printf("The strings are equivalent.\n");
   else
      printf("The strings are not equivalent.\n");
   return 0;
}
The output should be: 
      The strings are equivalent.

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