PROLOG |NAME |SYNOPSIS |DESCRIPTION |RETURN VALUE |ERRORS |EXAMPLES |APPLICATION USAGE |RATIONALE |FUTURE DIRECTIONS |SEE ALSO |COPYRIGHT | |
STRTOL(3P) POSIX Programmer's ManualSTRTOL(3P)This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
strtol, strtoll — convert a string to a long integer
#include <stdlib.h> long strtol(const char *restrictnptr, char **restrictendptr, intbase); long long strtoll(const char *restrictnptr, char **restrictendptr, intbase)
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard. These functions shall convert the initial portion of the string pointed to bynptr to a typelongandlong longrepresentation, respectively. First, they decompose the input string into three parts: 1. An initial, possibly empty, sequence of white-space characters (as specified byisspace()) 2. A subject sequence interpreted as an integer represented in some radix determined by the value ofbase 3. A final string of one or more unrecognized characters, including the terminating NUL character of the input string. Then they shall attempt to convert the subject sequence to an integer, and return the result. If the value ofbase is 0, the expected form of the subject sequence is that of a decimal constant, octal constant, or hexadecimal constant, any of which may be preceded by a'+'or'-' sign. A decimal constant begins with a non-zero digit, and consists of a sequence of decimal digits. An octal constant consists of the prefix'0'optionally followed by a sequence of the digits'0'to'7'only. A hexadecimal constant consists of the prefix 0x or 0X followed by a sequence of the decimal digits and letters'a'(or'A') to'f'(or'F') with values 10 to 15 respectively. If the value ofbase is between 2 and 36, the expected form of the subject sequence is a sequence of letters and digits representing an integer with the radix specified bybase, optionally preceded by a'+'or'-'sign. The letters from'a'(or'A') to'z'(or'Z') inclusive are ascribed the values 10 to 35; only letters whose ascribed values are less than that ofbase are permitted. If the value ofbase is 16, the characters 0x or 0X may optionally precede the sequence of letters and digits, following the sign if present. The subject sequence is defined as the longest initial subsequence of the input string, starting with the first non-white-space character that is of the expected form. The subject sequence shall contain no characters if the input string is empty or consists entirely of white-space characters, or if the first non-white- space character is other than a sign or a permissible letter or digit. If the subject sequence has the expected form and the value ofbase is 0, the sequence of characters starting with the first digit shall be interpreted as an integer constant. If the subject sequence has the expected form and the value ofbase is between 2 and 36, it shall be used as the base for conversion, ascribing to each letter its value as given above. If the subject sequence begins with a <hyphen-minus>, the value resulting from the conversion shall be negated. A pointer to the final string shall be stored in the object pointed to byendptr, provided thatendptr is not a null pointer. In other than the C or POSIX locale, additional locale-specific subject sequence forms may be accepted. If the subject sequence is empty or does not have the expected form, no conversion is performed; the value ofnptr shall be stored in the object pointed to byendptr, provided thatendptr is not a null pointer. These functions shall not change the setting oferrno if successful. Since 0, {LONG_MIN} or {LLONG_MIN}, and {LONG_MAX} or {LLONG_MAX} are returned on error and are also valid returns on success, an application wishing to check for error situations should seterrno to 0, then callstrtol() orstrtoll(), then checkerrno. Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the converted value, if any. If no conversion could be performed, 0 shall be returned anderrno may be set to[EINVAL]. If the value ofbase is not supported, 0 shall be returned anderrno shall be set to[EINVAL]. If the correct value is outside the range of representable values, {LONG_MIN}, {LONG_MAX}, {LLONG_MIN}, or {LLONG_MAX} shall be returned (according to the sign of the value), anderrno set to[ERANGE].These functions shall fail if:EINVALThe value ofbase is not supported.ERANGEThe value to be returned is not representable. These functions may fail if:EINVALNo conversion could be performed.The following sections are informative.
None.
Since the value of*endptr is unspecified if the value ofbase is not supported, applications should either ensure thatbase has a supported value (0 or between 2 and 36) before the call, or check for an[EINVAL]error before examining*endptr.
None.
None.
fscanf(3p),isalpha(3p),strtod(3p) The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017,stdlib.h(0p)
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online athttp://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html . Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, seehttps://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .IEEE/The Open Group 2017STRTOL(3P)Pages that refer to this page:stdlib.h(0p), atoi(3p), atol(3p), fscanf(3p), strtod(3p), strtoimax(3p), strtoll(3p), strtoul(3p)
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 byMichael Kerrisk, author ofThe Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depthLinux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, lookhere. Hosting byjambit GmbH. | ![]() |