<p><pre><code>  &quot;strcat(strcat(strcat(strcpy(buf, &quot;This &quot;),&quot;is &quot;),&quot;a long &quot;),&quot;string.&quot;);
  len = strlen(buf);
</code></pre>
&gt; The above example executes in exponential time with the length of the strings.<p>This statement is obviously not true. The example is linear with the length of the strings (assuming the number of strings is constant) and O(n^2) with the number of strings (assuming each string has non-zero length).