Change Shell Command Path

I want to change the path for the command in a shell. I want to make it easier to type in the command when I run the shell. As of now, I have to type in /bin/ls but I want to just type in "ls" instead. I have altered the function below to do this but it's not working. It still must have the full path. What am I doing wrong? Is it a syntax error?

void get_path_string(char **tmp_envp, char *bin_path)
{
  int count = 0;
  char *tmp;
  while(1) {
    tmp = strstr(tmp_envp[count], "LD_LIBRARY_PATH");
    if (tmp == NULL)
      {
            count++;
            continue;
      }
    else
      {
        break;
      }

    //tmp = strstr(tmp_envp[count], "PATH");
    //if(tmp == NULL) {
    //  count++;}
    //  else {
    //  break;
    //}
  }

  strncpy(bin_path, tmp, strlen(tmp));
}

On what machine? What OS?
All UNIX have PATH environment set to by default a strict minimum which includes /bin:/usr/bin...