VMS Help RTL Routines, STR$, STR$COMPARE  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    The Compare Two Strings routine compares the contents of two
    strings.

    Format

      STR$COMPARE  first-source-string ,second-source-string

1 - Returns

    OpenVMS usage:longword_signed
    type:         longword integer (signed)
    access:       write only
    mechanism:    by value

    The values returned by STR$COMPARE and the conditions to which
    they translate are as follows:

    Returned
    Value         Condition

                  first-source-string is less than second-source-
                  string.
    0             first-source-string is equal to second-source-
                  string.
    1             first-source-string is greater than second-source-
                  string.

2 - Arguments

 first-source-string

    OpenVMS usage:char_string
    type:         character string
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by descriptor

    First string. The first-source-string argument is the address of
    a descriptor pointing to the first string.

 second-source-string

    OpenVMS usage:char_string
    type:         character string
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by descriptor

    Second string. The second-source-string argument is the address
    of a descriptor pointing to the second string.