Re^2: Tell whether two strings differ at only one position

Wow! japhy++

sub compare {
  (($_[0] ^ $_[1]) =~ tr/\0//c) < 2;
}
[download]

While I liked each and every solution other wise monks have been so kind to come up with so far, when I looked at the solution of japhy, I immediately saw that this is the one I have been searching for! It is clean and concise and perlish, and, quite amazingly, it is just one statement, so I can eliminate the compare sub alltogether which, as I hope, will make my script even faster!

I am beginning to see that after a certain point, Perl programming becomes a matter of pure aesthetics...

rg0now

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Re^3: Tell whether two strings differ at only one position by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 04, 2005 at 21:16 UTC
Except it doesn't work: `sub compare { (($_[0] ^ $_[1]) =~ tr/\0//c) < 2; } print((compare('abc', 'abcd') ? 'ok' : 'not ok'), "\n");` [download] It should be `sub compare { length $_[0] == length $_[1] && (($_[0] ^ $_[1]) =~ tr/\0//c) < 2; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Tell whether two strings differ at only one position by rg0now (Chaplain) on Aug 05, 2005 at 09:59 UTC
Thanks ikegami for pointing this one little important fact out to me! I have almost forgot my very own specifications for the problem. That `tr///c` absolutely made my day... rg0now	[reply] [d/l]