static const char s[] = "ab.cd.efghijk"; int foo (const char *x) { const char *a; int b = 0; a = __builtin_strchr (s, '.'); if (a == 0) b = 1; else if ((a = __builtin_strchr (a + 1, '.')) == 0) b = 1; else if (__builtin_strncmp (s, x, a - s)) b = 1; else if (__builtin_strncmp (a + 1, x + (a - s + 1), 4) < 0) b = 1; if (b) return 4; return 0; }