Uses of the strcmp function?

[extrovertive]

I know strcmp returns 0 if both string are the same -1 is string a is < b 1 is a > b.

But what are some practical uses of it in an application?

[.josh]

i found this comment in the strcmp section of the manual, which seems to be a good explanation:

[quote]
One thing to note in comparison with ==

When we make a comparison with == php automaticly converts strings to integers when either side of the comparison is an integer, f.e.:
<?
$value = 0;
if($value == "submit") {
  echo "Let's submit";
}
?>
Above would be succesful, since "submit" is converted to an integer (eq 0) and the equation is would return true; (that's why (1 == "1submit") would also return true)

That's why we should use strcmp or === (checks type also), for string comparisons.

So my conclusion is that when comparing string, you'd better not make use of == (use strmp or === instead). For integer comparisons the == equation can be usefull, since our values will always be casted to an integer (1 == "1" returns true).
[/quote]

[extrovertive]

Ah, I see. I've been using if($data == 'mystring') the whole time; should've use === instead.

But, if the string is the same, why return 0? What's the -1 and 1 for in the comparison?

[.josh]

because it's a binary comparison.  it breaks the strings down to their binary equivelants and compares them.  Therefore it needs 3 returnable values: less than, equal or greater than.

[code]
strcmp(101,100);    //returns 1 because 101 is greater than 100
strcmp(101,101);    //returns 0 because they are equal
strcmp(1010,1011); //returns -1 becuase 1010 is less than 1011
[/code]