How does testing if a string is 'greater' than another work in Bash?

Question

In Bash I can write the following test

[[ \"f\" > \"a\" ]]

which results in returning 0, i.e. true. How does bash actually perform this

Answer 1

It's an alphabetical comparison (AIUI the sort order may be influenced by the current locale). It compares the first character of each string, and if the one on the left has a higher value it's true, if lower it's false; if they're the same, then it compares the second character, etc.

This is not the same as integer comparison, for that you use [[ 2 -gt 1 ]] or (( 2 > 1 )). To illustrate the difference between string and integer comparison, consider that all of the following are "true":

[[ 2 > 10 ]]     # because "2" comes after "1" in ASCII sort order
[[ 10 -gt 2 ]]   # because 10 is a larger number than 2
(( 10 > 2 ))     # ditto

Here are some more test that're true as string comparisons, but would be false with integer comparison:

[[ 05 < 5 ]]    # Because "0" comes before "5"
[[ +5 < 0 ]]    # Because "+" comes before the digits
[[ -0 < 0 ]]    # Because "-" comes before the digits
[[ -1 < -2 ]]   # Because "-" doesn't change how the second character is compared

Answer 2

Yes, it compares the ascii value and if equal then repeat the comparison in the next character.

/* Copyright (C) 1991, 1996, 1997, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 
   This file is part of the GNU C Library. 

   The GNU C Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or 
   modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public 
   License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either 
   version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. 

   The GNU C Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU 
   Lesser General Public License for more details. 

   You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public 
   License along with the GNU C Library; if not, write to the Free 
   Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 
   02111-1307 USA.  */ 

#include <string.h> 
#include <memcopy.h> 

#undef strcmp 

/* Compare S1 and S2, returning less than, equal to or 
   greater than zero if S1 is lexicographically less than, 
   equal to or greater than S2.  */ 
int 
strcmp (p1, p2) 
     const char *p1; 
     const char *p2; 
{ 
  register const unsigned char *s1 = (const unsigned char *) p1; 
  register const unsigned char *s2 = (const unsigned char *) p2; 
  unsigned reg_char c1, c2; 

  do 
    { 
      c1 = (unsigned char) *s1++; 
      c2 = (unsigned char) *s2++; 
      if (c1 == '\0') 
        return c1 - c2; 
    } 
  while (c1 == c2); 

  return c1 - c2; 
} 

Answer 3

From help test:

  STRING1 > STRING2
                 True if STRING1 sorts after STRING2 lexicographically.

Internally, bash either uses strcoll() or strcmp() for that:

else if ((op[0] == '>' || op[0] == '<') && op[1] == '\0')
  {
    if (shell_compatibility_level > 40 && flags & TEST_LOCALE)
      return ((op[0] == '>') ? (strcoll (arg1, arg2) > 0) : (strcoll (arg1, arg2) < 0));
    else
      return ((op[0] == '>') ? (strcmp (arg1, arg2) > 0) : (strcmp (arg1, arg2) < 0));
  }

The latter actually compares ASCII codes, the former (used when locale is enabled) performs a more specific comparison which is suitable for sorting in given locale.