Differences between C++ string == and compare()?

std::string::compare() returns an int:

• equal to zero if s and t are equal,
• less than zero if s is less than t,
• greater than zero if s is greater than t.

If you want your first code snippet to be equivalent to the second one, it should actually read:

if (!s.compare(t)) {
    // 's' and 't' are equal.
}

The equality operator only tests for equality (hence its name) and returns a bool.

To elaborate on the use cases, compare() can be useful if you're interested in how the two strings relate to one another (less or greater) when they happen to be different. PlasmaHH rightfully mentions trees, and it could also be, say, a string insertion algorithm that aims to keep the container sorted, a dichotomic search algorithm for the aforementioned container, and so on.

EDIT: As Steve Jessop points out in the comments, compare() is most useful for quick sort and binary search algorithms. Natural sorts and dichotomic searches can be implemented with only std::less.

Internally, string::operator==() is using string::compare(). Please refer to: CPlusPlus - string::operator==()

I wrote a small application to compare the performance, and apparently if you compile and run your code on debug environment the string::compare() is slightly faster than string::operator==(). However if you compile and run your code in Release environment, both are pretty much the same.

FYI, I ran 1,000,000 iteration in order to come up with such conclusion.

In order to prove why in debug environment the string::compare is faster, I went to the assembly and here is the code:

DEBUG BUILD

string::operator==()

        if (str1 == str2)
00D42A34  lea         eax,[str2]  
00D42A37  push        eax  
00D42A38  lea         ecx,[str1]  
00D42A3B  push        ecx  
00D42A3C  call        std::operator==<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> > (0D23EECh)  
00D42A41  add         esp,8  
00D42A44  movzx       edx,al  
00D42A47  test        edx,edx  
00D42A49  je          Algorithm::PerformanceTest::stringComparison_usingEqualOperator1+0C4h (0D42A54h)  

string::compare()

            if (str1.compare(str2) == 0)
00D424D4  lea         eax,[str2]  
00D424D7  push        eax  
00D424D8  lea         ecx,[str1]  
00D424DB  call        std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >::compare (0D23582h)  
00D424E0  test        eax,eax  
00D424E2  jne         Algorithm::PerformanceTest::stringComparison_usingCompare1+0BDh (0D424EDh)

You can see that in string::operator==(), it has to perform extra operations (add esp, 8 and movzx edx,al)

RELEASE BUILD

string::operator==()

        if (str1 == str2)
008533F0  cmp         dword ptr [ebp-14h],10h  
008533F4  lea         eax,[str2]  
008533F7  push        dword ptr [ebp-18h]  
008533FA  cmovae      eax,dword ptr [str2]  
008533FE  push        eax  
008533FF  push        dword ptr [ebp-30h]  
00853402  push        ecx  
00853403  lea         ecx,[str1]  
00853406  call        std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >::compare (0853B80h)  

string::compare()

            if (str1.compare(str2) == 0)
    00853830  cmp         dword ptr [ebp-14h],10h  
    00853834  lea         eax,[str2]  
    00853837  push        dword ptr [ebp-18h]  
    0085383A  cmovae      eax,dword ptr [str2]  
    0085383E  push        eax  
    0085383F  push        dword ptr [ebp-30h]  
    00853842  push        ecx  
00853843  lea         ecx,[str1]  
00853846  call        std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >::compare (0853B80h)

Both assembly code are very similar as the compiler perform optimization.

Finally, in my opinion, the performance gain is negligible, hence I would really leave it to the developer to decide on which one is the preferred one as both achieve the same outcome (especially when it is release build).

This is what the standard has to say about operator==

21.4.8.2 operator==

template<class charT, class traits, class Allocator>
bool operator==(const basic_string<charT,traits,Allocator>& lhs,
                const basic_string<charT,traits,Allocator>& rhs) noexcept;

Returns: lhs.compare(rhs) == 0.

Seems like there isn't much of a difference!