Why use strcmp instead of = ? [MATLAB]

[nickadams]

If a user answers "yes", "Yes", "y", or "Y" to an input question, I want to enter the while loop. But when I tried to use


user=input('blahblahblah [y/n]: ','s');

while user=='y' || user='Y' || user=='yes' || user=='Yes'


MATLAB recommends I change to strcmp. Why is this?

 

[MisterX]

To test if two strings are equivalent, use strcmp, which allows vectors of dissimilar length to be compared.

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/relationaloperators.html

Even if the strings had the same length, using == might result in the creation of an intermediate logical array of the same size, whereas strcmp might stop comparing as soon as the first difference was encountered.

 

[AlephZero]

It's also a very good habit to learn if you ever move to C++ or Java, because in those languages == and strcmp() do fundamentally different things.

In C++, == checks if the two strings share the same memory, not if the contents of the memory are equal.

So for code like
String a = "string" + " one";
String b = "string one";
String c = a;

You get the strange result that a == c is true (because a and c are both references to the same String object), but a == b is false (because a and b are different String objects).

But strcmp(a,b) and strcmp(a,c) are both true, which is probably how you wanted the comparison to behave.

 

[MisterX]

It's also a very good habit to learn if you ever move to C++ or Java, because in those languages == and strcmp() do fundamentally different things.

In C++, == checks if the two strings share the same memory, not if the contents of the memory are equal.

So for code like
String a = "string" + " one";
String b = "string one";
String c = a;

You get the strange result that a == c is true (because a and c are both references to the same String object), but a == b is false (because a and b are different String objects).

But strcmp(a,b) and strcmp(a,c) are both true, which is probably how you wanted the comparison to behave.

This is not correct. C++ has no String type. For, C++'s std::string type, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8ww0haah.aspx" does perform a lexicographical comparison, so a == b would be true. Also, you may not add two c-string literals in C++.


Java, which does have a String type, does not have an strcmp function at all. This functionality may be performed with the .equals method.

 

[alphy]

strcmp is a function in MATLAB that allows for more flexibility and accuracy when comparing strings. When using the = operator, MATLAB will only return true if the two strings are exactly the same, including case sensitivity. However, with strcmp, you can specify the comparison to be case insensitive and also allow for alternative forms of a string to be considered as a match. This means that in your case, the user could input "yes", "Yes", "y", or "Y" and strcmp will still return true, while the = operator would only return true if the user inputs "y". Additionally, strcmp also allows for more complex comparisons, such as comparing strings with different lengths or special characters. In summary, using strcmp instead of = provides more robust and accurate string comparisons in MATLAB.