Prepending to a string

Question

What is the most efficient way to prepend to a C string, using as little memory as possible?

I am trying to reconstruct the path to a file in a large directory tree.

Answer 1

I leave a buffer at left and at right of the array. You have to hold two index but if you have to do it a lot of times (otherweise there would be no problem for efficency) it worts it. The two index I suggest to be ]s;e], one included and one not:

 #define BUFSIZE 256
 #define LEFTBUF 20
 struct mstring
 {
   char * string;
   unsigned s;
   unsigned e;
  }
  void checkbuf(struct mstring *value, int newstringlen, char   leftorright)
  {
  //have fun here
  }
  char * concat (struct mstring * value, char * str)
  {
       checkbuf(value, strlen(value,str), 'r');
       int i=0;
       while (str[i])
            value->string[value->e++]=str[i++];
   }
   char * set(struct mstring * value, char * str)
   {
        value->e=LEFTBUF;
        value->s=LEFTBUF;
        concat( value,str);

   }

  char * prepend (struct mstring * value, char * str)
  {
       checkbuf(value, strlen(value,str), 'l');
       int i=strlen(value,str)-1;
       while (i>=0)
            value->string[--value->s]=str[i--];
   }
  int main()
  {
      struct mstring * mystring= (struct mstring *) malloc(sizeof(struct mstring) );
      mystring->string=(char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*BUFSIZE);
      set( mystring,"World");
      prepend(mystring,"Hallo")

  }

then you have to prepare a function for fill substrings...