memcpy function

C

Function

Reference manual

@see man memcpy, memmove function

The memcpy function copies n bytes from the memory area pointed to by src to the memory area pointed to by dest.

The memory areas must not overlap as the behavior is undefined, that’s why it is better to use the memmove function instead.

Syntax

void *memcpy(void *dest, const void *src, size_t n);

Parameters

• dest: A pointer to the destination memory area.
• src: A pointer to the source memory area.
• n: The number of bytes to be copied.

Return value

Returns a pointer to the destination memory area dest.

Example

In the following example we use the memcpy function to copy the string “Hello, World!” to an empty character array.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(void) {
    char source[] = "Hello, World!";
    char destination[20];

    memcpy(destination, source, strlen(source) + 1);
    printf("Copied string: %s\n", destination);
    return (0);
}