Thread: string comparing question..

what this function does

Code:

int what(char *st1, char *st2){
	char *p = st1;

	if(*st2 || *st1){
		if(*st1 == '\0') return 0;
		while(*st1 && *st2 && *st1==*st2) st1++;  //it stops on the place
                                                                                       //where st1 differs str2
		if(st1==p) return 0;                        //it always will return 0 because
                                                                      //we defined char *p = st1;
		return what(st1, st2+1);
	}
	else
		return 1;
}

so it will always return 0 and not going to the recursive line
??

st1++ make the array to decay from the next place
but they didnt do it for st2
so they check if all the chars in st1 equal the current char of st2
if we have one char in st1 which differs the "zero" cell then
it check for the same thing but st2 decays on the next cell in its array

i cant understand what is the purpose of this??

i traced it
i get 0 in the output

how do i get to the purpose??