> You say strlen() but you probably mean "code has to iterate all the string elements". Yes, but that's much more expensive than a memcpy (of the two source st

> You say strlen() but you probably mean "code has to iterate all the string elements". Yes, but that's much more expensive than a memcpy (of the two source strings) or just knowing the length (of the string in the target buffer). > Strcpy has to iterate through all the elements because it copies them. This would happen regardless. No, it wouldn't; memcpy is generally a lot faster than strcpy. > Do you not understand how C string/arrays work Do you not understand that he's written a few C compilers, and designed and implemented a language that is known for its runtime compatibility with C? > or why do you insist on 3 strlens? Um, you already noted that he really means "code has to iterate all the string elements". What he should have said is that you have to find 3 NULs. That's an expensive operation even when you're copying the string while finding it.