You just write a function that returns -1, 0, or 1. It's not specific to C, it's in any language that has fixed-size types. Another reason (a lame one) to ret

You just write a function that returns -1, 0, or 1. It's not specific to C, it's in any language that has fixed-size types. Another reason (a lame one) to return -1, 0, or 1 is that often the caller expects one of those return values for some reason (because the caller is dumb and your comparison function is replacing another one that behaved that way).