CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rstring
Bipin Chandra
Bipin Chandra

Reputation: 3

What is the underlying logic when comparing strings?

What is the logic used by R to end up with the output FALSE in the below logical operation on characters. Is it just comparing letter S with letter T instead of the entire string.

"Sachin" > "Tendulkar" Output: FALSE

Upvotes: 0

Views: 43

Answers (1)

Ben Bolker
Ben Bolker

Reputation: 226532

This is in the documentation. ?">" gives:

Comparison of strings in character vectors is lexicographic within the strings using the collating sequence of the locale in use

In other words, this is just a regular dictionary-style comparison. Things can get very complicated/weird depending on locales (e.g. how non-alphabetic, accented, upper/vs lower case, etc. etc. characters are handled), but this case looks straightforward. "S" comes before "T" in every locale I can imagine, so "S"<"T"; in a lexicographic sort, this will determine the order (otherwise ties would be broken by later letters in the sequence).

Upvotes: 2

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