# strncpy, strncpy_s

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< c‎ | string‎ | byte

Defined in header `<string.h>` |  |
| (1) |
char *strncpy( char *dest, const char *src, size_t count ); |  | (until C99)
char *strncpy( char *restrict dest, const char *restrict src, size_t count ); |  | (since C99)
errno_t strncpy_s(char *restrict dest, rsize_t destsz, const char *restrict src, rsize_t count); | (2) | (since C11)

1) Copies at most `count` characters of the character array pointed to by `src` (including the terminating null character, but not any of the characters that follow the null character) to character array pointed to by `dest`.
If `count` is reached before the entire array `src` was copied, the resulting character array is not null-terminated.
If, after copying the terminating null character from `src`, `count` is not reached, additional null characters are written to `dest` until the total of `count` characters have been written.
The behavior is undefined if the character arrays overlap, if either `dest` or `src` is not a pointer to a character array (including if `dest` or `src` is a null pointer), if the size of the array pointed to by `dest` is less than `count`, or if the size of the array pointed to by `src` is less than `count` and it does not contain a null character.
2) Same as (1), except that the function does not continue writing zeroes into the destination array to pad up to `count`, it stops after writing the terminating null character (if there was no null in the source, it writes one at dest[count] and then stops). Also, the following errors are detected at runtime and call the currently installed constraint handler function:

  - `src` or `dest` is a null pointer
  - `destsz` or `count` is zero or greater than RSIZE_MAX
  - `count` is greater or equal `destsz`, but `destsz` is less or equal strnlen_s(src, count), in other words, truncation would occur
  - overlap would occur between the source and the destination strings

The behavior is undefined if the size of the character array pointed to by `dest` < strnlen_s(src, destsz) <= `destsz`; in other words, an erroneous value of `destsz` does not expose the impending buffer overflow. The behavior is undefined if the size of the character array pointed to by `src` < strnlen_s(src, count) < `destsz`; in other words, an erroneous value of `count` does not expose the impending buffer overflow.

  As with all bounds-checked functions, `strncpy_s` is only guaranteed to be available if __STDC_LIB_EXT1__ is defined by the implementation and if the user defines __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ to the integer constant 1 before including `string.h`.

### Parameters

dest | - | pointer to the character array to copy to
src | - | pointer to the character array to copy from
count | - | maximum number of characters to copy
destsz | - | the size of the destination buffer

### Return value

1) returns a copy of `dest`
2) returns zero on success, returns non-zero on error. Also, on error, writes zero to dest[0] (unless `dest` is a null pointer or `destsz` is zero or greater than RSIZE_MAX) and may clobber the rest of the destination array with unspecified values.

### Notes

As corrected by the post-C11 DR 468, `strncpy_s`, unlike strcpy_s, is only allowed to clobber the remainder of the destination array if an error occurs.

Unlike `strncpy`, `strncpy_s` does not pad the destination array with zeroes, This is a common source of errors when converting existing code to the bounds-checked version.

Although truncation to fit the destination buffer is a security risk and therefore a runtime constraints violation for `strncpy_s`, it is possible to get the truncating behavior by specifying `count` equal to the size of the destination array minus one: it will copy the first `count` bytes and append the null terminator as always: strncpy_s(dst, sizeof dst, src, (sizeof dst)-1);

### Example

Run this code

    #define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ 1
    #include <string.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>

    int main(void)
    {
        char src[] = "hi";
        char dest[6] = "abcdef"; // no null terminator
        strncpy(dest, src, 5); // writes five characters 'h', 'i', '\0', '\0', '\0' to dest
        printf("strncpy(dest, src, 5) to a 6-byte dest gives : ");
        for (size_t n = 0; n < sizeof dest; ++n) {
            char c = dest[n];
            c ? printf("'%c' ", c) : printf("'\\0' ");
        }

        printf("\nstrncpy(dest2, src, 2) to a 2-byte dst gives : ");
        char dest2[2];
        strncpy(dest2, src, 2); // truncation: writes two characters 'h', 'i', to dest2
        for (size_t n = 0; n < sizeof dest2; ++n) {
            char c = dest2[n];
            c ? printf("'%c' ", c) : printf("'\\0' ");
        }
        printf("\n");

    #ifdef __STDC_LIB_EXT1__
        set_constraint_handler_s(ignore_handler_s);
        char dst1[6], src1[100] = "hello";
        int r1 = strncpy_s(dst1, 6, src1, 100);      // writes 0 to r1, 6 characters to dst1
        printf("dst1 = \"%s\", r1 = %d\n", dst1,r1); // 'h','e','l','l','o','\0' to dst1

        char dst2[5], src2[7] = {'g','o','o','d','b','y','e'};
        int r2 = strncpy_s(dst2, 5, src2, 7);        // copy overflows the destination array
        printf("dst2 = \"%s\", r2 = %d\n", dst2,r2); // writes nonzero to r2,'\0' to dst2[0]

        char dst3[5];
        int r3 = strncpy_s(dst3, 5, src2, 4);        // writes 0 to r3, 5 characters to dst3
        printf("dst3 = \"%s\", r3 = %d\n", dst3,r3); // 'g', 'o', 'o', 'd', '\0' to dst3
    #endif
    }

Possible output:

    strncpy(dest, src, 5) to a 6-byte dst gives : 'h' 'i' '\0' '\0' '\0' 'f'
    strncpy(dest2, src, 2) to a 2-byte dst gives : 'h' 'i'
    dst1 = "hello", r1 = 0
    dst2 = "", r2 = 22
    dst3 = "good", r3 = 0

### References

- C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

  - 7.24.2.4 The strncpy function (p: 363-364)

  - K.3.7.1.4 The strncpy_s function (p: 616-617)

- C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

  - 7.21.2.4 The strncpy function (p: 326-327)

- C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

  - 4.11.2.4 The strncpy function

### See also

strcpy strcpy_s (C11) | copies one string to another (function)
memcpy memcpy_s (C11) | copies one buffer to another (function)
strndup (dynamic memory TR) | allocate a copy of a string up to specified size (function)

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