(x > y) - (x < y)

Returns 1, 0 or -1 depending on which is greater, x or y. Very useful for rapid (or more accurately, less-slow) alphanumerical sorting functions.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

Sort of like the C function strcmp (x,y)

I didn't write it, go hit Frank Drake. (My catchphrase in movies at the point when the aliens turn out to be evil invaders.)

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"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song

Circumference = pi × diameter. Who'd have thought it would be a constant?

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

Yup. That's exactly right, and that's pretty much what strcmp is for: the conditional in O(n*log(n)) alphanumeric sorting algorithms such as Merge Sort and Quick Sort.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

Mine is Boom=M*c^2

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

E=mc^2
A^2+B^2=C^2
The drake equation

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There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact it's all dark - Pink Floyd, The Dark Side Of The Moon