[Tutor] String comparison

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

>     How do I perform a string comparison in Python. 

if str1 == str2:...
if str1 < str2:....

etc

Also using cmp()

cmp(str1,str2)

returns -1,0,1 for less than, equal, greater than...

 
> This is because of the ASCII values of upper case letters 
> which is smaller than those of lower case ones. Is there any 
> command which will compare irrespective of the cases. 

No, but you can convcert case with the upper() and 
lower() methods of string objects:

str1 = "Hero"
str2 = "here"
cmp(str1,str2)

str1 will be less that str2 coz of the uppercase H.

Now try
cmp(str1.upper(),str2.upper())

str2 should be lower because it ends in 'e'...

HTH,

Alan G.