bionic (3) binsrch.3WN.gz

NAME

       bin_search,  copyfile,  replace_line,  insert_line  -  general  purpose functions for performing a binary
       search

SYNOPSIS

       char *bin_search(char *key, FILE *fp);

       void copyfile(FILE *fromfp, FILE *tofp);

       char *replace_line(char *new_line, char *key, FILE *fp);

       char *insert_line(char *new_line, char *key, FILE *fp);

DESCRIPTION

       The WordNet library contains several general  purpose  functions  for  performing  a  binary  search  and
       modifying sorted files.

       bin_search()  is the primary binary search algorithm to search for key as the first item on a line in the
       file pointed to by fp.  The delimiter between the key and the rest of the fields on  the  line,  if  any,
       must  be  a  space.   A  pointer  to  a  static variable containing the entire line is returned.  NULL is
       returned if a match is not found.

       The remaining functions are not used by WordNet, and are only briefly described.

       copyfile() copies the contents of one file to another.

       replace_line() replaces a line in a file having searchkey key with the contents of new_line.  It  returns
       the original line or NULL in case of error.

       insert_line()  finds  the  proper  place  to insert the contents of new_line, having searchkey key in the
       sorted file pointed to by fp.  It returns NULL if a line with this searchkey is already in the file.

NOTES

       The maximum length of key is 1024.

       The maximum line length in a file is 25K.

       If there are no additional fields after the search key, the key must be followed by at  least  one  space
       before the newline character.

SEE ALSO

       wnintro(3WN), morph(3WN), wnsearch(3WN), wnutil(3WN), wnintro(5WN).

WARNINGS

       binsearch()  returns a pointer to a static character buffer.  The returned string should be copied by the
       caller if the results need to be saved, as a subsequent call will replace  the  contents  of  the  static
       buffer.