Re: [RFC] Binary String Comparison

On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 02:44:36PM +0200, Marc Bennewitz wrote: > >What exactly is wrong with ===, strcmp(), etc..? > > The question isn't "What's wrong with ===, strcmp()?" but "What's > wrong with ==, <, >?". > > We have a standard way to compare two operands but currently we do > some magic things to solve something that don't need to be solved. > > If you would like to compare two pears we currently convert the > pears into apples and compare two apples and say please use a > special function to compare two pears. Why? > > There is no numeric context to compare two strings numerically. I don't want to start a flame war, but perl gets it right, you have 2 sets of operators 'eq' and '=='. The choice to have a type juggling '==' was made years ago, that should not change. If you want '<=' with strings, use strcmp(). There is also a speed cost to type juggling (PHP 5.3.3, 64 bit centos): $a = "1234"; $b = "ghij" $a == $b is about 64% slower than $a === $b strcmp($, $b) is about 163% slower than $a === $b $a = "abcd"; $b = "ghij" $a == $b is about 24% slower than $a === $b strcmp($, $b) is about 168% slower than $a === $b $a = "abcd"; $b = "4567" $a == $b is about 20% slower than $a === $b strcmp($, $b) is about 176% slower than $a === $b $a = "1234"; $b = "4567" $a == $b is about 20% slower than $a === $b strcmp($, $b) is about 162% slower than $a === $b -- Alain Williams Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer. +44 (0) 787 668 0256 http://www.phcomp.co.uk/ Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php #include <std_disclaimer.h>