compare

Builtin index · Collections & strings

result = compare(a, b, [ignore_case])

Input: a, b, ignore_case · Output: result

What it is

a and b are Strs; optional ignore_case (bool, default false).

Overloads

One call shape — this function is not overloaded.

Code	Input	Output	Description
`result = compare(a, b, [ignore_case])`	`a` Str`a` and `b` are `Str`s. `b` Str`a` and `b` are `Str`s. `ignore_case` bool, optionaloptional `ignore_case` (`bool`, default `false`).	`result` number	Returns a `number`: −1, 0 or 1, so it can drive a sort directly.

Examples

From the documentation, and run by the build -- the output and the figure below are what the engine actually produced. Simplest first.

s = "Hello, Qu World!"
print(mid(s, 7, 2))          # "Qu"

print(left(s, 5))            # "Hello"

print(right(s, 6))           # "World!"

print(reverse("abc"))        # "cba"

print(lower("SHOUT"))        # "shout"

print(ucase("shout"))        # "SHOUT"

print(lcase("SHOUT"))        # "shout"

print(toupper("mix"))        # "MIX"

print(tolower("MIX"))        # "mix"

print(capitalize("ada lovelace"))  # "Ada lovelace"

print(ltrim("   padded"))    # "padded"

print(rtrim("padded   ") + "|")   # "padded|"

print(pad_right("ab", 5, "."))    # "ab..."

print(compare("apple", "banana")) # -1

print(asc("A"))              # 65

output

Qu
Hello
World!
cba
shout
SHOUT
shout
MIX
mix
Ada lovelace
padded
padded|
ab...
-1
    ... 1 more lines

from collections-strings

How it works

compare(a, b, [ignore_case]) — -1, 0 or 1, so it can drive a sort directly. Case-insensitive comparison is the reason this exists: lower(a) == lower(b) allocates two strings to answer a question that needs none.

From the note above this builtin in the interpreter, where the reasoning was written down as it was built.