Strchr removing the part I want

Question

So I am fooling around with strchr to get part of a string from a file:

void manipulateComputers(char *name)
{
    name[strlen(name)-2] = '\0';
    printf("%s\n", name);

    char *ptr = strchr(name, ' ');
    printf("%s\n", ptr); 
}

At the first printf it reads: zelda 1 flux 1 hydra 1 willow 1 swift 1 aeon 1 neptune 1

At the second printf it reads: 1 flux 1 hydra 1 willow 1 swift 1 aeon 1 neptune 1

As you can see, the zelda is gone, which is kind of what I wanted to do. I wanted to remove the zelda, but now I want to use zelda.

Essentially, I wanted the second printf to print just zelda and not the string without zelda. How do I get a hold of that zelda to eventually pass it to another function. Thanks

Answer 1

You've not lost zelda; the pointer name still points to it.

You can print zelda using (amongst other techniques):

int z_len = ptr - name;
printf("Zelda was here: %*.*s\n", z_len, z_len, name);

The advantage of this technique over many alternatives is that the original string is still intact — unmodified. This means it also works when the string is a const string, such as a string literal.