From cppreference.com
intstrcoll(constchar*lhs,constchar*rhs);Compares two null-terminated byte strings according to the current locale as defined by the
category.
Parameters
lhs, rhs - pointers to the null-terminated byte strings to compare Return value
Negative value if lhs is less than (precedes) rhs.
0 if lhs is equal torhs.
Positive value if lhs is greater than (follows) rhs.
Notes
Collation order is the dictionary order: the position of the letter in the national alphabet (its equivalence class) has higher priority than its case or variant. Within an equivalence class, lowercase characters collate before their uppercase equivalents and locale-specific order may apply to the characters with diacritics. In some locales, groups of characters compare as single collation units. For example, "ch" in Czech follows "h" and precedes "i", and "dzs" in Hungarian follows "dz" and precedes "g".
Example
Run this code
#include<locale.h>#include<stdio.h>#include<string.h>intmain(void){setlocale(LC_COLLATE,"cs_CZ.utf8");// Alternatively, ISO-8859-2 (a.k.a. Latin-2)// may also work on some OS:// setlocale(LC_COLLATE, "cs_CZ.iso88592");constchar*s1="hrnec";constchar*s2="chrt";printf("In the Czech locale: ");if(strcoll(s1,s2)<0)printf("%s before %s\n",s1,s2);elseprintf("%s before %s\n",s2,s1);printf("In lexicographical comparison: ");if(strcmp(s1,s2)<0)printf("%s before %s\n",s1,s2);elseprintf("%s before %s\n",s2,s1);}Output:
In the Czech locale: hrnec before chrt In lexicographical comparison: chrt before hrnec References
C23 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2024):
7.24.4.3 The strcoll function (p: TBD)
C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
7.24.4.3 The strcoll function (p: TBD)
C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
7.24.4.3 The strcoll function (p: 366)
C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
7.21.4.3 The strcoll function (p: 329)
C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
4.11.4.3 The strcoll function
See also