Why use GLib functions?

c gtk glib
Zenet picture Zenet · Feb 10, 2010 · Viewed 17.5k times · Source

While programming in C and GTK+, why is it "better" to use g_strdup_printf, g_free, g_strcmp0 etc... and fellow GLib functions?

Answer

Stéphan Kochen picture Stéphan Kochen · Feb 10, 2010

In general, GLib's purpose is a utility and portability library. Those in itself are reasons to consider using it.

The specific functions you mention all offer something extra on top of their C standard library variants:

  • g_strdup_printf is like sprintf, but actually allocates the buffer for you and saves you the guesswork of how large the buffer should be. (The return value should be g_free'd.)
  • g_free is like free, but checks for a NULL-pointer.
  • g_strcmp0 is like strcmp, but treats a NULL-pointer like an empty string, and thus sorts it in front.

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