How? String Comparison - Determine the characters that are different

[sherry]

Hello.

What is the best way when after performing a string comparison e.g. substr_compare(), to find exactly what characters were different including Ascii characters which include blank spaces?

Thanks.

[dagon]

for what purpose?

i suppose you cold compare character by character?

[sherry]

Hi dagon.

I had compared 2 strings that to the eye were exact, but I had forgotten about '\n' and realized that was the difference. I spent more time on this than I had planned. I would have found out the difference sooner if there was a function or other that would have pointed out that difference in characters. Therefore, I'm trying to find out if that function exists.

Thanks.

[dagon]

writing your own would be easy enough, but there is no native character by character compare given 2 strings.

[sherry]

Thanks for the info, dagon.

Hopefully one day, maybe it can be added to PHP core as it would be quite useful.

[dagon]

considering the number of functions it has (especially compared to to other languages) i hope they don't. php provides all the tools you need to build one your self, they can't have a function for everything

[sherry]

I hear what you're saying. I just figured that the option to see the difference 'already calculated' (found) can be an additional parameter added to the existing functions. There would be no need to create a new function.

Until then, I guess one would have to be created. That I would have to give some thought to when the time comes.

Thanks.

[dagon]

strangely, in 10 years, i have never needed it (but that could just be me)