The NE function returns a Boolean value that  specifies  if  the
  parameters  are  not  equal according to the ASCII values of the
  strings' characters.

  Syntax:

     NE( str1,str2 )

  The  parameters  'str1'  and  'str2'  must  be  character-string
  expressions.   VSI  Pascal  does  not  pad  shorter strings with
  blanks.