Standard library header <cstdlib>

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Standard library headers

Language support <cfloat> <climits> <compare> (C++20) <coroutine> (C++20) <csetjmp> <csignal> <cstdarg> <cstddef> <cstdint> (C++11) <cstdlib> <exception> <initializer_list> (C++11)    <limits> <new> <source_location> (C++20) <stdfloat> (C++23) <typeinfo> <version> (C++20) Concepts <concepts> (C++20) Diagnostics <cassert> <cerrno> <debugging> (C++26) <stacktrace> (C++23) <stdexcept> <system_error> (C++11) Memory management <memory> <memory_resource> (C++17) <scoped_allocator> (C++11) Metaprogramming <type_traits> (C++11) <ratio> (C++11)

General utilities <any> (C++17) <bitset> <bit> (C++20) <charconv> (C++17) <expected> (C++23) <format> (C++20) <functional> <optional> (C++17) <tuple> (C++11) <typeindex> (C++11) <utility> <variant> (C++17) Containers <array> (C++11) <deque> <flat_map> (C++23) <flat_set> (C++23) <forward_list> (C++11) <inplace_vector> (C++26)    <list> <map> <mdspan> (C++23) <queue> <set> <span> (C++20) <stack> <unordered_map> (C++11) <unordered_set> (C++11) <vector> Iterators <iterator> Ranges <generator> (C++23) <ranges> (C++20)

Algorithms <algorithm> <numeric> Strings <cctype> <cstring> <cuchar> (C++11) <cwchar> <cwctype> <string_view> (C++17) <string> Text processing <clocale> <codecvt> (C++11/17/26*) <locale> <regex> (C++11) <text_encoding> (C++26)    Numerics <cfenv> (C++11) <cmath> <complex> <linalg> (C++26) <numbers> (C++20) <random> (C++11) <valarray> Time <chrono> (C++11) <ctime> C compatibility <ccomplex> (C++11/17/20*) <ciso646> (until C++20) <cstdalign> (C++11/17/20*) <cstdbool> (C++11/17/20*) <ctgmath> (C++11/17/20*)

Input/output <cinttypes> (C++11) <cstdio> <filesystem> (C++17) <fstream> <iomanip> <iosfwd> <iostream> <ios> <istream> <ostream> <print> (C++23) <spanstream> (C++23) <sstream> <streambuf> <strstream> (C++98/26*) <syncstream> (C++20) Concurrency support <atomic> (C++11) <barrier> (C++20) <condition_variable> (C++11) <future> (C++11) <hazard_pointer> (C++26) <latch> (C++20) <mutex> (C++11) <rcu> (C++26) <semaphore> (C++20) <shared_mutex> (C++14) <stdatomic.h> (C++23) <stop_token> (C++20) <thread> (C++11) Execution support <execution> (C++17)

 

This header was originally in the C standard library as <stdlib.h>.

This header provides miscellaneous utilities. Symbols defined here are used by several library components.

Types
div_t	structure type, returned by std::div (typedef)
ldiv_t	structure type, returned by std::ldiv (typedef)
lldiv_t (C++11)	structure type, returned by std::lldiv (typedef)
size_t	unsigned integer type returned by the sizeof operator (typedef)
Macro constants
EXIT_SUCCESSEXIT_FAILURE	indicates program execution status (macro constant)
MB_CUR_MAX	maximum number of bytes in a multibyte character with the current locale (macro constant)
NULL	implementation-defined null pointer constant (macro constant)
RAND_MAX	maximum possible value generated by std::rand (macro constant)
Functions
Process control
abort	causes abnormal program termination (without cleaning up) (function)
exit	causes normal program termination with cleaning up (function)
quick_exit (C++11)	causes quick program termination without completely cleaning up (function)
_Exit (C++11)	causes normal program termination without cleaning up (function)
atexit	registers a function to be called on std::exit() invocation (function)
at_quick_exit (C++11)	registers a function to be called on std::quick_exit invocation (function)
system	calls the host environment's command processor (function)
getenv	access to the list of environment variables (function)
Memory management
malloc	allocates memory (function)
aligned_alloc (C++17)	allocates aligned memory (function)
calloc	allocates and zeroes memory (function)
realloc	expands or shrinks previously allocated memory block (function)
free	deallocates previously allocated memory (function)
Numeric string conversion
atof	converts a byte string to a floating point value (function)
atoiatolatoll (C++11)	converts a byte string to an integer value (function)
strtolstrtoll (C++11)	converts a byte string to an integer value (function)
strtoulstrtoull (C++11)	converts a byte string to an unsigned integer value (function)
strtofstrtodstrtold	converts a byte string to a floating-point value (function)
Wide string manipulation
mblen	returns the number of bytes in the next multibyte character (function)
mbtowc	converts the next multibyte character to wide character (function)
wctomb	converts a wide character to its multibyte representation (function)
mbstowcs	converts a narrow multibyte character string to wide string (function)
wcstombs	converts a wide string to narrow multibyte character string (function)
Miscellaneous algorithms and math
rand	generates a pseudo-random number (function)
srand	seeds pseudo-random number generator (function)
qsort	sorts a range of elements with unspecified type (function)
bsearch	searches an array for an element of unspecified type (function)
abs(int)labsllabs (C++11)	computes absolute value of an integral value (\(\small{|x|}\)|x|) (function)
div(int)ldivlldiv (C++11)	computes quotient and remainder of integer division (function)

Synopsis

namespace std {
  using size_t =  /* see description */; // freestanding
  using div_t =   /* see description */; // freestanding
  using ldiv_t =  /* see description */; // freestanding
  using lldiv_t = /* see description */; // freestanding
}
 
#define NULL         /* see description */ // freestanding
#define EXIT_FAILURE /* see description */ // freestanding
#define EXIT_SUCCESS /* see description */ // freestanding
#define RAND_MAX     /* see description */
#define MB_CUR_MAX   /* see description */
 
namespace std {
  // Exposition-only function type aliases
  extern "C" using /* c-atexit-handler */ = void(); // exposition only
  extern "C++" using /* atexit-handler */ = void(); // exposition only
  extern "C" using /* c-compare-pred */ =           // exposition only
    int(const void*, const void*);
  extern "C++" using /* compare-pred */ =           // exposition only
    int(const void*, const void*);
 
  // start and termination
  [[noreturn]] void abort() noexcept;                       // freestanding
  int atexit(/* c-atexit-handler */* func) noexcept;        // freestanding
  int atexit(/* atexit-handler */* func) noexcept;          // freestanding
  int at_quick_exit(/* c-atexit-handler */* func) noexcept; // freestanding
  int at_quick_exit(/* atexit-handler */* func) noexcept;   // freestanding
  [[noreturn]] void exit(int status);                       // freestanding
  [[noreturn]] void _Exit(int status) noexcept;             // freestanding
  [[noreturn]] void quick_exit(int status) noexcept;        // freestanding
 
  char* getenv(const char* name);
  int system(const char* string);
 
  // C library memory allocation
  void* aligned_alloc(size_t alignment, size_t size);
  void* calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size);
  void free(void* ptr);
  void* malloc(size_t size);
  void* realloc(void* ptr, size_t size);
 
  double atof(const char* nptr);
  int atoi(const char* nptr);
  long int atol(const char* nptr);
  long long int atoll(const char* nptr);
  double strtod(const char* nptr, char** endptr);
  float strtof(const char* nptr, char** endptr);
  long double strtold(const char* nptr, char** endptr);
  long int strtol(const char* nptr, char** endptr, int base);
  long long int strtoll(const char* nptr, char** endptr, int base);
  unsigned long int strtoul(const char* nptr, char** endptr, int base);
  unsigned long long int strtoull(const char* nptr, char** endptr, int base);
 
  // multibyte / wide string and character conversion functions
  int mblen(const char* s, size_t n);
  int mbtowc(wchar_t* pwc, const char* s, size_t n);
  int wctomb(char* s, wchar_t wchar);
  size_t mbstowcs(wchar_t* pwcs, const char* s, size_t n);
  size_t wcstombs(char* s, const wchar_t* pwcs, size_t n);
 
  // C standard library algorithms
  void* bsearch(const void* key, const void* base,  // freestanding
                size_t nmemb, size_t size, /* c-compare-pred */* compar);
  void* bsearch(const void* key, const void* base,  // freestanding
                size_t nmemb, size_t size, /* compare-pred */* compar);
  void qsort(void* base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, // freestanding
             /* c-compare-pred */* compar);
  void qsort(void* base, size_t nmemb, size_t size, // freestanding
             /* compare-pred */* compar);
 
  // low-quality random number generation
  int rand();
  void srand(unsigned int seed);
 
  // absolute values
  constexpr int abs(int j);                       // freestanding
  constexpr long int abs(long int j);             // freestanding
  constexpr long long int abs(long long int j);   // freestanding
  constexpr /* floating-point-type */
    abs(/* floating-point-type */ j);             // freestanding-deleted
 
  constexpr long int labs(long int j);            // freestanding
  constexpr long long int llabs(long long int j); // freestanding
 
  constexpr div_t div(int numer, int denom);                         // freestanding
  constexpr ldiv_t div(long int numer, long int denom);              // freestanding
  constexpr lldiv_t div(long long int numer, long long int denom);   // freestanding
  constexpr ldiv_t ldiv(long int numer, long int denom);             // freestanding
  constexpr lldiv_t lldiv(long long int numer, long long int denom); // freestanding
}

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 286	C++98	the definition of size_t was not provided in <cstdlib>	provided

See also

• Program support utilities
• Pseudo-random number generation
• Common mathematical functions
• Mathematical special functions
• C memory management library
• Null-terminated byte strings
• Null-terminated multibyte strings
• Algorithms library