# V526. The 'strcmp' function returns 0 if corresponding strings are equal. Consider inspecting the condition for mistakes.

This message is a kind of recommendation. It rarely diagnoses a logical error but helps make code more readable for young developers.

The analyzer detected a construct comparing two strings that can be written in a clearer way. Such functions as strcmp, strncmp and wcsncmp return 0 if strings identical. It may cause logical errors in program. Look at a code sample:

    if (strcmp(s1, s2))

This condition will hold if the strings ARE NOT IDENTICAL. Perhaps you remember well what strcmp() returns, but a person who rarely works with string functions might think that the strcmp() function returns the value of type 'bool'. Then he will read this code in this way: "the condition is true if the strings match".

You'd better not save on more characters in the program text and write the code this way:

    if (strcmp(s1, s2) != 0)

This text tells the programmer that the strcmp() function returns some numeric value, not the bool type. This code ensures that the programmer will understand it properly.

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This diagnostic is classified as:

CWE-253

You can look at examples of errors detected by the V526 diagnostic.