From b49f11657dc95dca8ebbfa24d1fda0f6ea07fa7d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: liquidev <liquidev@tutanota.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:52:19 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] add a note on prefix matches with C strings

---
 content/programming.tree                        |  4 ++++
 .../programming/blog/cstring-starts-with.tree   | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 content/programming/blog/cstring-starts-with.tree

diff --git a/content/programming.tree b/content/programming.tree
index 6dd3b55..948e67a 100644
--- a/content/programming.tree
+++ b/content/programming.tree
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@
       id = "01J4J4PAXRWZDP9PAZNGCQ9S3D"
     + [featured]{.badge .blue} :page: haku - writing a little programming language for fun
 
+    % content.link = "programming/blog/cstring-starts-with"
+      id = "01JCGAM56KS2C6D4XZ1MRATXH4"
+    + :page: prefix matches with C strings
+
     % content.link = "programming/blog/buildsome"
       id = "01J7BYKQHZKYQ969T3PH3V8HF1"
     + :page: not quite buildless
diff --git a/content/programming/blog/cstring-starts-with.tree b/content/programming/blog/cstring-starts-with.tree
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1965bee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/programming/blog/cstring-starts-with.tree
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+%% title = "prefix matches with C strings"
+
+% id = "01JCGAM55352EF247HZ358BAJ8"
+- one thing I realised while reading some code at work that worked with C strings: it's surprising how easy it is to match a prefix on a C string.
+
+```c
+if (s != NULL
+    && s[0] == 'h'
+    && s[1] == 'u'
+    && s[2] == 'g')
+{
+    // ...
+}
+```
+
+% id = "01JCGAM5537WYE3GEN6WGX8WD0"
+- this works because of the NUL terminator---if it appears at any point in the string, the `s[i] == c` comparison will return `false`, thus breaking the `&&` chain---so indices always stay in-bounds!