_strnicoll, _wcsnicoll, _mbsnicoll, _strnicoll_l, _wcsnicoll_l, _mbsnicoll_l

Compares strings by using locale-specific information.

Important

_mbsnicoll and _mbsnicoll_l cannot be used in applications that execute in the Windows Runtime. For more information, see CRT functions not supported in Universal Windows Platform apps.

Syntax

int _strnicoll(
   const char *string1,
   const char *string2,
   size_t count
);
int _wcsnicoll(
   const wchar_t *string1,
   const wchar_t *string2 ,
   size_t count
);
int _mbsnicoll(
   const unsigned char *string1,
   const unsigned char *string2,
   size_t count
);
int _strnicoll_l(
   const char *string1,
   const char *string2,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);
int _wcsnicoll_l(
   const wchar_t *string1,
   const wchar_t *string2 ,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);
int _mbsnicoll_l(
   const unsigned char *string1,
   const unsigned char *string2,
   size_t count,
   _locale_t locale
);

Parameters

string1, string2
Null-terminated strings to compare

count
Number of characters to compare

locale
The locale to use.

Return value

Each of these functions returns a value indicating the relationship of the substrings of string1 and string2, as follows.

Return value	Relationship of string1 to string2
< 0	string1 less than string2
0	string1 identical to string2
> 0	string1 greater than string2

Each of these functions returns _NLSCMPERROR. To use _NLSCMPERROR, include either STRING.H or MBSTRING.H. _wcsnicoll can fail if either string1 or string2 contains wide-character codes outside the domain of the collating sequence. When an error occurs, _wcsnicoll may set errno to EINVAL. To check for an error on a call to _wcsnicoll, set errno to 0 and then check errno after calling _wcsnicoll.

Remarks

Each of these functions performs a case-insensitive comparison of the first count characters in string1 and string2 according to the code page. These functions should be used only when there's a difference between the character set order and the lexicographic character order in the code page and this difference is of interest for the string comparison. The versions of these functions without the _l suffix use the current locale and code page. The versions with the _l suffix are identical except that they use the locale passed in instead. For more information, see Locale.

All of these functions validate their parameters. If either string1 or string2 is a null pointer, or if count is greater than INT_MAX, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter validation . If execution is allowed to continue, these functions return _NLSCMPERROR and set errno to EINVAL.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Generic-text routine mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tcsncicoll	_strnicoll	_mbsnbicoll	_wcsnicoll
_tcsnicoll	_strnicoll	_mbsnbicoll	_wcsnicoll
_tcsnicoll_l	_strnicoll_l	_mbsnbicoll_l	_wcsnicoll_l

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_strnicoll, _strnicoll_l	<string.h>
_wcsnicoll, _wcsnicoll_l	<wchar.h> or <string.h>
_mbsnicoll, _mbsnicoll_l	<mbstring.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

See also

Locale
String manipulation
strcoll functions
localeconv
_mbsnbcoll, _mbsnbcoll_l, _mbsnbicoll, _mbsnbicoll_l
setlocale, _wsetlocale
strcmp, wcscmp, _mbscmp
_stricmp, _wcsicmp, _mbsicmp, _stricmp_l, _wcsicmp_l, _mbsicmp_l
strncmp, wcsncmp, _mbsncmp, _mbsncmp_l
_strnicmp, _wcsnicmp, _mbsnicmp, _strnicmp_l, _wcsnicmp_l, _mbsnicmp_l
strxfrm, wcsxfrm, _strxfrm_l, _wcsxfrm_l