strcmp/strncmp源码分析

1. strcmp

　　strcmp 用于比较两个字符串是否相等。内部实现与我们最初的想法一致，就是循环遍历两个字符串，遇到不相等的那一位即返回差值。

int
strcmp (p1, p2)
     const char *p1;
     const char *p2;
{
  register const unsigned char *s1 = (const unsigned char *) p1;
  register const unsigned char *s2 = (const unsigned char *) p2;
  unsigned char c1, c2;

  do
    {
      c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
      c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
      if (c1 == '\0')
	return c1 - c2;
    }
  while (c1 == c2);

  return c1 - c2;
}

　　这里用到了 register 修饰符。register 修饰符意思是将此变量的值存放到寄存器中。除此之外，也没做别的特殊优化。

2. strncmp

　　此函数功能与 strcmp 类似，也是比较两个字符串的大小，不同的是只比较前 n 个字符，相对于之前的版本来说更加安全。

　　对于此函数，最简单的想法就是按字符逐个比较，直到遇到字符串结束。

while (n > 0)
{
    c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
    c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
    if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
        return c1 - c2;
    n--;
}

　　以下是 strncmp 的 glibc 的实现。

/* Compare no more than N characters of S1 and S2,
   returning less than, equal to or greater than zero
   if S1 is lexicographically less than, equal to or
   greater than S2.  */
int
strncmp (const char *s1, const char *s2, size_t n)
{
  unsigned char c1 = '\0';
  unsigned char c2 = '\0';

  if (n >= 4)
    {
      size_t n4 = n >> 2;
      do
	{
	  c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
	  c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
	  if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
	    return c1 - c2;
	  c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
	  c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
	  if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
	    return c1 - c2;
	  c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
	  c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
	  if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
	    return c1 - c2;
	  c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
	  c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
	  if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
	    return c1 - c2;
	} while (--n4 > 0);
      n &= 3;
    }

  while (n > 0)
    {
      c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++;
      c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++;
      if (c1 == '\0' || c1 != c2)
	return c1 - c2;
      n--;
    }

  return c1 - c2;
}

　　算法的重点在那个大大的 “do” 循环里面。明明一个小循环就能搞定的，为什么要把同样的四行代码 copy 四遍呢？

　　这应该与CPU处理器进行流水线操作时的分支预测有关系，这么做可以让其每四次才经历一次分支预测。下表是两个函数分别运行 10w 次的运行结果。

表1: strncmp 与 my_strncmp 效率对比

字符串长度	strncmp 运行时间(ms)	my_strncmp 运行时间(ms)
5	2.62	3.10
20	8.17	10.98
100	38.70	45.36
200	75.55	88.62

　　从上表可以看出，对于预测流水线的优化有一定效果，但是优化效果在10%~20%左右。