Return to Statement

Compare Strings Example

This example demonstrates how using the CMPSTR function can replace many lines of programming. The object of the example is to return value (-1, 0, or 1) to the variable ANS which is used later in the program.

Using the CMPSTR function as shown below,

   ANS=CMPSTR('ABZ','ABC')

is equivalent to the following expressions:

   DO/A1:,I,1,3
   NUM1=ASCII('ABZ',I)
   NUM2=ASCII('ABC',I)
   IF/(NUM1-NUM2),LO:,,HI:
   A1:
   JUMP/A2:
   LO:
   ANS=-1
   JUMP/A2:
   HI:
   ANS=1
   A2:

NOTE: The first unequal position is position three and the character Z as shown in the ASCII Conversion Table lexically follows the character C, therefore, the value of ANS is 1.

Several more strings are compared below: