Efficient method to split comma-separated values?

if you know for sure the number of data and the specific format, you can try using sscanf

char str[] = "<1023,0,511,1023,0,1032>"

int first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth;


int result = sscanf(str, "<%d,%d,%d,%d,%d,%d>", &first, &second, &third, &fourth, &fifth, &sixth);

//result should be 6 if sscanf successes (because we scan 6 numbers)

Again this code is not robust as you must follow the pattern.