Strtokrcharchar

Strtokrcharchar is a fictional string tokenization concept used in programming theory and library design. It describes an API for breaking a string into tokens separated by delimiter characters, with emphasis on safe reentrancy and robust handling of character encodings. The term blends familiar ideas from the C standard library's strtok and its reentrant variant with an explicit reference to character level processing.

The name strtokrcharchar is a portmanteau formed from str (string), tok (tokenize), r (reentrant), and char (character). It signals a tokenization approach that aims to be both thread-safe and encoding-aware. The term appears in speculative design discussions and educational examples rather than as a standardized interface.

In concept, strtokrcharchar provides an iterator-like interface that returns tokens one at a time without relying on a global state. It uses a per-context object to maintain position and status, enabling safe use in multi-threaded environments when each thread holds its own context. A caller supplies the input string, a set of delimiter characters, and options for multi-byte or Unicode processing. Implementations may support both simple single-byte delimiters and more sophisticated encodings, but behavior and performance depend on the facility's design.

Common use cases include parsing configuration files, command lines, or simple lexical analysis. Potential limitations include the complexity of correct edge-case handling, the need for explicit memory management of tokens, and trade-offs between safety and raw speed compared with non-reentrant approaches.

See also strtok, strtok_r, tokenization, and string processing.