How to compare two lists?

[Raimo Niskanen]

According to the Erlang Book (Concurrent Programming in Erlang),
<http://erlang.ericsson.se/publications/erlang-book-part1.pdf>, chapter
2.5.6, comparision is done as follows:

<BLOCKQUOTE>

The comparison operators work as follows: firstly, both sides of the
operator are
evaluated where possible (i.e. in the case when they are arithmetic
expressions, or
contain guard function BIFs); then the comparison operator is performed.

For the purposes of comparison the following ordering is defined:

	number < atom < reference < port < pid < tuple < list

Tuples are ordered first by their size then by their elements. Lists
are ordered
by comparing heads, then tails.

</BLOCKQUOTE>

According to that last paragraph, lists are indeed traversed by the '=='
operator, so you should be able to write:
	
	my_func(List1, List2) ->
	    if
	        List1 == List2 -> true;
		true -> false;
	    end.

or even without the '==' operator:

	my_func(L, L) -> true;
	my_func(_, _) -> false.

or why do you need my_func/2 , it just does:

	List1 == List2

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB




Dariab Wahed wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> Can you help me,
> 
> How to compare two lists?
> eg.
> 
> my_func(List1,List2)
> if
>     List1 == List2 -> ok;
>     List1/= List2 -> {error,"error!!!!"};
> end.