Compare versions as strings

Question

Comparing version numbers as strings is not so easy...
\"1.0.0.9\" > \"1.0.0.10\", but it\'s not correct.
The obvious way to do it properly is to parse these strings

Answer 1

I would create a version class.
Then it is simple to define the comparison operator for the version class.

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

class Version
{
    // An internal utility structure just used to make the std::copy in the constructor easy to write.
    struct VersionDigit
    {
        int value;
        operator int() const {return value;}
    };
    friend std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& str, Version::VersionDigit& digit);
    public:
        Version(std::string const& versionStr)
        {
            // To Make processing easier in VersionDigit prepend a '.'
            std::stringstream   versionStream(std::string(".") + versionStr);

            // Copy all parts of the version number into the version Info vector.
            std::copy(  std::istream_iterator(versionStream),
                        std::istream_iterator(),
                        std::back_inserter(versionInfo)
                     );
        }

        // Test if two version numbers are the same. 
        bool operator<(Version const& rhs) const
        {
            return std::lexicographical_compare(versionInfo.begin(), versionInfo.end(), rhs.versionInfo.begin(), rhs.versionInfo.end());
        }

    private:
        std::vector    versionInfo;
};

// Read a single digit from the version. 
std::istream& operator>>(std::istream& str, Version::VersionDigit& digit)
{
    str.get();
    str >> digit.value;
    return str;
}


int main()
{
    Version     v1("10.0.0.9");
    Version     v2("10.0.0.10");

    if (v1 < v2)
    {
        std::cout << "Version 1 Smaller\n";
    }
    else
    {
        std::cout << "Fail\n";
    }
}