Here's a nickel. Go buy yourself a decent programming language. void version(const char* progName, const char* versionStr) { int major; int minor; int result; result = sscanf(versionStr, "Revision: %i.%i", &major, &minor); if (2 != result) { printf("%s isn't a valid revision string.\n", versionStr); } else { printf("%s: Major: %i, Minor: %i\n", progName, major, minor); } }