PHP strcmp is not returning the correct answer with session variable

PHP strcmp is not returning the correct answer with session variable

I have a session variable $_SESSION['condition'], I know it is set because
when I entered this:
echo $_SESSION['condition']." = "."Below Average";
It returns:
Below Average = Below Average
When I do a gettype() on the session variable it returns type "string".
Yet when I do strcmp() it returns: -34
I have also tried an IF statement with == rather than strcmp testing for
equality AND an IF statement casting them both as strings and testing if
they are equal with no luck.
Any reason why this could be?