Comparing strings in PHP question.

[mstabosz]

I have a theoretical question.

 

I noticed that there is a strcmp() function in PHP for comparing strings.  You can also put strings inside switch statements and use the == operator for comparison.  Given that, is there a difference between using strcmp() to find if strings are equal versus just using the == operator?  I know that in Java, use of == is unreliable because of the nature of the way that language handles strings.  So in Java you use String.equals(), String.compareTo(), or String.compareToIgnoreCase().  Is that the case in PHP?  Is any approach to comparing strings better than the other in any way?

[Ch0cu3r]

== just compares the two string are identical.

 

strcmp() compares the strings are identical (returns 0), if they are not identical it'll return a value indicating which string is bigger than the other.

 

Quote from manual

 

 

Return Values ¶

Returns < 0 if str1 is less than str2; > 0 if str1 is greater than str2, and 0 if they are equal.