Check a literal string prefix.

C: strncmp compares at most the prefix length; both inputs must be valid strings.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(void) {
    const char *text = "user:ada", *prefix = "user:";
    printf("%s\n", strncmp(text, prefix, strlen(prefix)) == 0 ? "match" : "no match");
    return 0;
}

Expected output EXAMPLE

match

Details

Save as snippet.c; compile with gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra snippet.c -lm -o snippet, then run ./snippet. strncmp compares at most the prefix length; both inputs must be valid strings.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · 2026-11-02 18:02:28 UTC · gcc (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04.1) 13.3.0 · gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Unprivileged snippet process, external networking disabled, read-only root filesystem, and a fresh temporary working directory. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel: x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale: uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation: gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra -Werror snippet.c -lm -o snippet && ./snippet
Container image ID: sha256:32dc2d998158b6554c99b73b533f423696a0f3e31e8cbea9db10b5eee9a2fadd
Code SHA-256: 1fee873ad008df60384883b78a06ee56f7287882bf8f8a06012f00cac11ebf67
Dependencies: gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

# No input files required.

Observed standard output

match

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.