Version number comparison in Python

Question

I want to write a cmp-like function which compares two version numbers and returns -1, 0, or 1 based on their compared va

Answer 1

This is my solution (written in C, sorry). I hope you'll find it useful

int compare_versions(const char *s1, const char *s2) {
    while(*s1 && *s2) {
        if(isdigit(*s1) && isdigit(*s2)) {
            /* compare as two decimal integers */
            int s1_i = strtol(s1, &s1, 10);
            int s2_i = strtol(s2, &s2, 10);

            if(s1_i != s2_i) return s1_i - s2_i;
        } else {
            /* compare as two strings */
            while(*s1 && !isdigit(*s1) && *s2 == *s1) {
                s1++;
                s2++;
            }

            int s1_i = isdigit(*s1) ? 0 : *s1;
            int s2_i = isdigit(*s2) ? 0 : *s2;

            if(s1_i != s2_i) return s1_i - s2_i;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}