OpenEuphoria

RE: compare() and equal()

• Posted by Kat <gertie at PELL.NET> Apr 09, 2001
• 476 views

On 8 Apr 2001, at 23:56, Derek Parnell wrote:


> 
> Hi Kat,
> I just did this ...
> 
> ? compare({1,2,{3,{4}},5}, {2-1,1+1,{3,{4}},6-1})
> ? equal({1,2,{3,{4}},5}, {2-1,1+1,{3,{4}},6-1})
> 
> ...
> and I got displayed ...
> 
> 0
> 1
> 
> which is exactly what I'd expect. There was no error message or the like.

Well, i just changed a bunch of these:
if equal(a,b) then

to:
if (compare(a,b) = 0) then

because the nested sequences in the equal() line were crashing the program! 
The compare() line runs fine now.
 
> > Also, if equal() is true, it returns boolean true, but if
> > compare() is true, it returns
> > boolean false.
> >
> 
> But compare() can *never* be true as it does not return a true/false
> indicator. It isn't meant to. It just tells if parameter#1 is less than,
> equal to, or greater than parameter#2. And this is not a boolean thing.

It returns zero or non-zero, and zero equates to false in a boolean compare. 
Equal() returns 1 (true) or 0 (false) the same way, but the true-1 in equal() 
and the true-0 in compare() feels too odd.

Kat