diff --git a/numexpr/interp_body.cpp b/numexpr/interp_body.cpp
index ec7e529a..8c47581f 100644
--- a/numexpr/interp_body.cpp
+++ b/numexpr/interp_body.cpp
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@
 
         case OP_GT_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = (stringcmp(s1, s2, ss1, ss2) > 0));
         case OP_GE_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = (stringcmp(s1, s2, ss1, ss2) >= 0));
-        case OP_EQ_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = (stringcmp(s1, s2, ss1, ss2) == 0));
+        case OP_EQ_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = (stringequal(s1, s2, ss1, ss2) == 0));
         case OP_NE_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = (stringcmp(s1, s2, ss1, ss2) != 0));
 
         case OP_CONTAINS_BSS: VEC_ARG2(b_dest = stringcontains(s1, s2, ss1, ss2));
diff --git a/numexpr/interpreter.cpp b/numexpr/interpreter.cpp
index 7c399d0c..e9ebb041 100644
--- a/numexpr/interpreter.cpp
+++ b/numexpr/interpreter.cpp
@@ -515,6 +515,21 @@ stringcmp(const char *s1, const char *s2, npy_intp maxlen1, npy_intp maxlen2)
     return 0;
 }
 
+static int
+stringequal(const char *s1, const char *s2, npy_intp maxlen1, npy_intp maxlen2)
+{
+    int s1len, s2len;
+    if (1) {
+	s1len = strnlen(s1, maxlen1);
+	s2len = strnlen(s2, maxlen2);
+	if (s1len != s2len) return -1;
+	/* They are equal in length, so check until the common length */
+	return strncmp(s1, s2, s2len);
+    }
+    else {
+	return stringcmp(s1, s2, maxlen1, maxlen2);
+    }
+}
 
 /* contains(str1, str2) function for string columns.