From: Trans <transfire@...>
Date: 2006-09-03T02:10:39+09:00
Subject: Ordered contrast for String or Array

I have two strings: "aabc" and "aacd". I want to get an "ordered
contrast" to see the difference in their spellings. Eg.

  "aabc".ordered_contrast( "aacc" ) => "  cc"

In the example a space represents a matching string, although I suppose
there may be a better alternative. In any case, one could also imagine
a non-ordered contrast:

  "aabc".contrast( "aacc" ) => "  c "

And conversly one could ask for the intersect.

  "aabc".inersect( "aacc" ) => "aa c"
  "aabc".ordered_inersect( "aacc" ) => "aa  "

These could be extended to Array as well, and String could just use
split(//) with those.

So the question is: Is there an efficient way to calculate these?

Thanks,
T.