When is 03 not equal to 03?

spacewarp has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

In the following code, $this_category is a two-digit value that's read from a local file. $tt is a variable I defined for debugging purposes.

$tt = "03";
if ($tt == $this_category) { print "YES"; } 
else {print "NO: tt--$tt-- this_category--$this_category--";}
[download]

The response that the web browser gets is:

NO: tt--03-- this_category--03--
[download]

I am running perl 5.005_03 and using taint checking and -w. Does anyone have any idea what's happening here? I need the $this_category value to work for a hash lookup.

I will gladly post more of the code if asked.

Spacewarp

DISCLAIMER:
Use of this advanced computing technology does not imply an endorsement
of Western industrial civilization.

Comment on When is 03 not equal to 03? Select or Download Code

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Re: When is 03 not equal to 03? by chipmunk (Parson) on Oct 14, 2001 at 02:01 UTC
Since the issue hsa already been resolved, here's a related, mildly interesting tidbit. 03 should always be equal to 03, but... when is 033 not equal to 033? `$var = '033'; if ($var == 033) { print "Equal.\n"; } else { print "Not equal.\n"; }` [download] As perldata explains, octal and hexadecimal numbers in strings are not automatically converted to their decimal equivalents, so '033' becomes 33, while the numeric literal 033 becomes 27.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: When is 03 not equal to 03? by George_Sherston (Vicar) on Oct 14, 2001 at 01:01 UTC
It's not much consolation, but it should work. Perl should be forcing your variables into numerical context if necessary, so that the comparison shd be ok with either `==` or `eq`. I'd be interested to see how `$this_category` is defined, but I've tried defining it all different ways and I can only get your error message by defining it as "04"! I'm using ActivePerl 5.6.1.629, however, which may make the difference. § George Sherston	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: When is 03 not equal to 03? by spacewarp (Pilgrim) on Oct 14, 2001 at 00:33 UTC
PS.. I've tried the if comparison with both == and eq, and if fails both ways. Spacewarp DISCLAIMER: Use of this advanced computing technology does not imply an endorsement of Western industrial civilization.	[reply]
Re: Re: When is 03 not equal to 03? by spacewarp (Pilgrim) on Oct 14, 2001 at 01:06 UTC
Once again, my faith in Murphy is confirmed. I figured it out soon after I posted the question. $this_category was being changed in a way that didn't show up in the web browser, ie 03 . Sorry for the wasted node. On second thought, let this be a lesson to others: When debugging with the web browser, always check the HTML source code. Spacewarp DISCLAIMER: Use of this advanced computing technology does not imply an endorsement of Western industrial civilization.	[reply]


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