[erlang-questions] strings vs binaries

Ben Hsu benhsu@REDACTED
Tue Aug 18 22:16:12 CEST 2015


Hello

I have a simple question, I know Erlang has strings and binary strings as
separate data types, and they're different even if they "look the same" in
the console


1> io:format(<<"fnord">>).
fnord
2> io:format("fnord").
fnord

3> "fnord"==<<"fnord">>
3> .
false

My question is when you will use each one. Are binary strings used for
sending data over the wire, and normal strings used internally? what are
the tradeoffs?
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