Compare strings

[al]

To compare two strings, not just to see if they are "equal" ("abcd"="abcd")
but tell their alphabetical order:

string a, b;
a = "abcd";
b = "bbcd";

Can all the ways below to do such comparison?

1. a > b

2. a.compare(b))

3. strcmp(a, b)

4. max(a, b)

Which one you prefer and why?

Thanks!

[Cy Edmunds]

"al" <al***@168.net> wrote in message
news:MC***********************@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

To compare two strings, not just to see if they are "equal" ("abcd"="abcd") but tell their alphabetical order:

string a, b;
a = "abcd";
b = "bbcd";

Can all the ways below to do such comparison?

1. a > b
This is good. What could be simpler?

2. a.compare(b))
Reminds me of a Fortran II IF statement, and that isn't a glowing
recommendation. :)

3. strcmp(a, b)
I don't like this one because it won't work. However if you ammend it to

strcmp(a.c_str(), b.c_str())

I still don't like it. Using char * as a string type is a leftover from C.

4. max(a, b)
This is good too, if that's what you mean. It means something different than
#1 of course.

Which one you prefer and why?

Thanks!

--
Cy
http://home.rochester.rr.com/cyhome/