How to create a conditional which checks the value of written text in plain TeX?

Question

I need to create a conditional in plain TeX like this:

IF #1 = "N"
THEN
    PRINT "TRUE"
ELSE
    PRINT "#1"

I tried various ways in TeX. The solution must be simple, but none of the ways I tried worked, e.g.:

\if#1="N"
    N
\else
    #1
\fi

There is never any other code inside #1 when "#1" is set to "N", e.g., \macro{N}, it is never \macro{\emph{N}}.

How can I create a conditional which checks the value of written text?

Answer 1

Solution 1

\ifx compares to macros:

\def\charcheckfor{N}
\def\checkfor#1{%
    \def\tempcheckcharfor{#1}%
    \ifx\tempcheckcharfor\charcheckfor%
        true%
    \else%
        false%
    \fi%
}

\checkfor{N}
\checkfor{X}

Solution 2

\pdfstrcmp (needs pdfTeX, for other engines there is pdftexcmds) expands to 0 if the strings are equal, to -1 if the first comes before the second (ASCII character code wise) and to 1 if the first comes after the second.

\def\charcheckfor{N}
\def\checkfor#1{%
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{#1}{\charcheckfor}=0%
        true%
    \else%
        false%
    \fi%
}
\checkfor{N}
\checkfor{X}