STRTOUL(3)

NAME
strtoul, strtoull, strtoumax, strtouq - convert a string to an unsigned long, unsigned long long, uintmax_t, or u_quad_t integer

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
unsigned long
strtoul(const char * restrict nptr, char ** restrict endptr, int base);
unsigned long long
strtoull(const char * restrict nptr, char ** restrict endptr, int base);
#include <inttypes.h>
uintmax_t
strtoumax(const char * restrict nptr, char ** restrict endptr, int base);
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
u_quad_t
strtouq(const char *nptr, char **endptr, int base);

DESCRIPTION
The strtoul() function converts the string in nptr to an unsigned long value. The strtoull() function converts the string in nptr to an unsigned long long value. The strtoumax() function converts the string in nptr to an uintmax_t value. The strtouq() function converts the string in nptr to a u_quad_t value. The conversion is done according to the given base, which must be between 2 and 36 inclusive, or be the special value 0.

The string may begin with an arbitrary amount of white space (as determined by isspace(3)) followed by a single optional ‘+’ or ‘-’ sign. If base is zero or 16, the string may then include a “0b” prefix, and the number will be read in base 2; or it may include a “0x” prefix, and the number will be read in base 16; otherwise, a zero base is taken as 10 (decimal) unless the next character is ‘0’, in which case it is taken as 8 (octal).

The remainder of the string is converted to an unsigned long value in the obvious manner, stopping at the end of the string or at the first character that does not produce a valid digit in the given base. (In bases above 10, the letter ‘A’ in either upper or lower case represents 10, ‘B’ represents 11, and so forth, with ‘Z’ representing 35.)

If endptr is not NULL, strtoul() stores the address of the first invalid character in *endptr. If there were no digits at all, however, strtoul() stores the original value of nptr in *endptr. (Thus, if *nptr is not ‘\0’ but **endptr is ‘\0’ on return, the entire string was valid.)

RETURN VALUES
The strtoul(), strtoull(), strtoumax() and strtouq() functions return either the result of the conversion or, if there was a leading minus sign, the negation of the result of the conversion, unless the original (non-negated) value would overflow; in the latter case, strtoul() returns ULONG_MAX, strtoull() returns ULLONG_MAX, strtoumax() returns UINTMAX_MAX, and strtouq() returns ULLONG_MAX. In all cases, errno is set to ERANGE. If no conversion could be performed, 0 is returned and the global variable errno is set to EINVAL (the last feature is not portable across all platforms).

ERRORS

[EINVAL]
    The value of base is not supported or no conversion could be performed (the last feature is not portable across all platforms).

[ERANGE]
    The given string was out of range; the value converted has been clamped.

SEE ALSO
strtol(3), strtonum(3), wcstoul(3)

STANDARDS
The strtoul() function conforms to isoC. The strtoull() and strtoumax() functions conform to isoC-99. The BSD strtouq() function is deprecated.