Player* FindPlayerByName(char *name, bool exactmatch, _linkedlist <Player>* list);
int FirstDifferentCharacter(char *string1, char *string2);

Player* FindPlayerByName(char *name, bool exactmatch, _linkedlist <Player>* list)
{
   _listnode <Player> *parse = list->head;   //set to first link of the player linked list
   Player* bestmatchplayer = NULL;
   int bestmatchlength = 0;
   
   String nametofind = name;
   nametofind.lcase();

   while (parse)   //parse will be NULL when we reach the last link
   {
      Player *p = parse->item;   //item is the actual data stored in the link
      String pname = (String) p->name;
      pname.lcase();

      if (pname == nametofind)
         return p;
      if (!exactmatch)
      {
         int firstdifferent = FirstDifferentCharacter(nametofind, pname);
         if (bestmatchlength < firstdifferent)
         {
            bestmatchlength = firstdifferent;
            bestmatchplayer = p;
         }
      }
      parse = parse->next;   //set parse to the next link
   }
   
   return bestmatchplayer;
}


//Zero-based index of the first different character in both string.
//If both strings are the same, will return the length of the string.
int FirstDifferentCharacter(char *string1, char *string2)
{
   int i;
   for (i = 0 ; string1[i] != '\0' && string2[i] != '\0' && tolower(string1[i]) == tolower(string2[i]) ; i++)
   {
   }
   return i;
}

int FirstDifferentCharacter(const char *string1, const char *string2)
{
   int i;
   for (i = 0 ; *string1 != '\0' && *string2 != '\0' && tolower(*string1) == tolower(*string2) ; i++, string1++, string2++)
   {
   }
   return i;
}