strrchr() in C

Last Updated : 31 Mar, 2023

The strrchr() function in C locates the last occurrence of a character in a string and returns a pointer to it. It is a standard library function defined inside <string.h> header file.

Syntax :

char* strrchr( char* str, int chr );

Parameter:

str: specifies the pointer to the null-terminated string in which the search is to be performed.
chr: specifies the character to be searched.

Return Value:

The function returns a pointer to the last location of chr in the string if the chr is found.
If chr is not found, it returns a null pointer.

Example:

// C program to illustrate
// the strrchr() function
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main()
{
    // initializing string
    char str[] = "GeeksforGeeks";

    // character to be searched
    char chr = 'k';

    // Storing pointer returned by
    char* ptr = strrchr(str, chr);

    // getting the position of the character
    if (ptr) {
        printf("Last occurrence of %c in %s is at index %d",
               chr, str, ptr - str);
    }
    // condition for character not present
    else {
        printf("%c is not present in %s ", chr, str);
    }
    return 0;
}

Output

Last occurrence of k in GeeksforGeeks is at index 11

When the character is not present in the string

strrchr() function returns a NULL pointer if the searched character is not found in the given string.

Example:

// C program to illustrate
// the strrchr() function
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main()
{

    // creating some string
    char str[] = "GeeksforGeeks";
    char* ptr;

    // The character to be searched
    char chr = 'z';

    // pointer returned by strrchr()
    ptr = strrchr(str, chr);

    // ptr-string gives the index location
    if (ptr) {
        printf("Last occurrence of %c in %s is at %d", chr,
               str, ptr - str);
    }
    // If the character we're searching is not present in
    // the array
    else {
        printf("%c is not present in %s ", chr, str);
    }
    return 0;
}