string::compare() problem?

[Andrew Walrond]

Hi Paolo

On Sunday 21 Mar 2004 16:27, Paolo Carlini wrote:
>
> first, the current behavior is correct: strings are compared
> "lexicographically":
> ever wondered why in your dictionary 'express' comes before
> 'expressionism'? ;)
>

My usual resource, O'Reilly's C++ In A Nutshell, says:

"Returns traits::compare(data(), str.data(), len) in which len is the smaller 
of size() and str.size()"

Hence my query/confusion :) On reflection, it's obviously wrong. I assume 
a.compare(0,2,b) will do what I need.

I'll send an errata to O'Reilly :)

Thanks

Andrew