I still needed to know how they compare (lt eq gt), so I did the following: 

  srand( 711 );

  . . .

  sub case2
  {  my $s1 = 'a' x 39 . 'b';
     my $s2 = 'a' x 39 . chr( 98 + rand(4));
     my ( $cmp, $loc ) = Cmp_and_Loc ( $s1, $s2 );
  }

  sub Cmp_and_Loc
  { my ( $s1, $s2, undef ) = @_;
    my $t = 0;
    my $cmp = $s1 cmp $s2;
    if ( $cmp ) { $t = $s1 ^ $s2; $t =~ /^\0*)/; $t = $+[0]; }
    return ( $cmp, $t );
  }

[download]

This appeared to work since if the strings are equal the sub returns 0,0. I will test your variation, but it still flies compared to anything I tried. Using the rand(4), I think I was able to test all combinations.

As always, when someone shows you how to do it correctly, it becomes easy :-)

Thank you

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

In reply to Re^2: If there a way to find the location of the first difference between two strings? by flexvault
in thread If there a way to find the location of the first difference between two strings? by flexvault

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.