libstring: A Lightweight C String Library

libstring is a lightweight C library designed to simplify common string operations while ensuring memory safety and preventing common pitfalls. It aims to provide an intuitive and safe interface for string manipulation, making it easier to work with strings in C programs.

Features

• Immutability: All string structures are treated as immutable objects. Any return value that is a reference points to a freshly allocated heap object, which must be freed after usage.

• Safe Memory Handling: Most of the memory allocation and deallocation are handled internally, reducing the risk of memory leaks and dangling pointers.

• Error Handling: In case of an error, functions return NULL or other appropriate error indicators.

• Functional Programming Support: libstring includes basic map() and filter() functions, enabling the implementation of string manipulation functions in a functional programming style.

• String Vectors: Support for dynamic arrays of strings, allowing easy manipulation of collections of strings.

Installation

To use libstring in your project, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/your-username/libstring.git
2. Navigate to the repository directory: cd libstring
3. Build the shared library libstring.so

   make
   

4. Install the library and header files:

 sudo make install

This will copy libstring.so to /usr/lib and libstring.h to /usr/include.

Misc

• Compile the test program tst-libstring:

  make tst-libstring

You should run this test program to ensure that libstring runs correctly on your machine.

• You can also generate HTML documentation using Doxygen:

  make html

The HTML documentation will be generated in the html directory.

• Uninstall the library:

   sudo make uninstall

This will remove the installed libstring.so and libstring.h files.

Usage

Here's a quick example of how to use libstring after the installation:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <libstring.h>
 
int main() {
    string_t *str = string_new("Hello world!");

    string_println(str);
    free(str);
}

Dependencies

• gcc (http://gcc.gnu.org/)
• make (http://www.gnu.org/software/make/)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

This library features an intuitive API, as its documentation was primarily composed by chatGPT 3.5. Therefore, I extend my gratitude to chatGPT from OpenAI for its contribution.