Bug Tracker
| ID | 99 |
|---|---|
| Status | Closed (Fixed) |
| Category | datatool |
| Version | 2.23 |
| Summary | strange behavior of \dtlcompare |
Report
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,final]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[verbose]{datatool}
\begin{document}
\newcount\mycount
\newcommand*{\noopsort}[1]{}
\verb+\newcommand*{\noopsort}[1]{}+ then \verb+\noopsort{a}foo+ produces the text: foo, however the following
\verb+\dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{a}foo}{bar}\number\mycount+
produces: -1, since the command \verb+\noopsort+ is disregarded when the comparison is made, so \verb+\dtlcompare+ just compares \{a\}foo with bar, and since a is less than b, the first string is considered to be less than the second string.
A. result with \verb+\noopsort{a}foo}+ \dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{a}foo}{bar}\number\mycount{} as expected
B. result with \verb+\noopsort{z}foo}+
\dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{z}foo}{bar}\number\mycount{}. Should it not be 1?
\end{document}
Patrice Mégret
MWE
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,final]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\listfiles
\usepackage[verbose]{datatool}
\begin{document}
\newcount\mycount
\newcommand*{\noopsort}[1]{}
\verb+\newcommand*{\noopsort}[1]{}+ then \verb+\noopsort{a}foo+ produces the text: foo, however the following
\verb+\dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{a}foo}{bar}\number\mycount+
produces: -1, since the command \verb+\noopsort+ is disregarded when the comparison is made, so \verb+\dtlcompare+ just compares \{a\}foo with bar, and since a is less than b, the first string is considered to be less than the second string.
A. result with \verb+\noopsort{a}foo}+ \dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{a}foo}{bar}\number\mycount{} as expected
B. result with \verb+\noopsort{z}foo}+
\dtlcompare{\mycount}{\noopsort{z}foo}{bar}\number\mycount{}. Should it not be 1?
\end{document}
Evaluation
I'm sorry, it turns out the documentation was wrong. What actually happens is that commands are treated as though they have a character code of 0. Since this may cause a problem for backward-compatibility for documents that rely on the actual behaviour (rather than the intended behaviour) I've added a switch \ifdtlcompareskipcs to version 2.32. This is false by default to maintain current behaviour but if you switch it to true (\dtlcompareskipcstrue) before making the comparison you should get the intended behaviour.
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