String.Compare Method (String, Int32, String, Int32, Int32, StringComparison)
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Compares substrings of two specified String objects using the specified string comparison options and returns an integer that indicates their relationship to one another in the sort order.
Namespace: System
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Syntax
'Declaration
<SecuritySafeCriticalAttribute> _
Public Shared Function Compare ( _
strA As String, _
indexA As Integer, _
strB As String, _
indexB As Integer, _
length As Integer, _
comparisonType As StringComparison _
) As Integer
[SecuritySafeCriticalAttribute]
public static int Compare(
string strA,
int indexA,
string strB,
int indexB,
int length,
StringComparison comparisonType
)
Parameters
- strA
Type: System.String
The first string to use in the comparison.
- indexA
Type: System.Int32
The position of the substring within strA.
- strB
Type: System.String
The second string to use in the comparison.
- indexB
Type: System.Int32
The position of the substring within strB.
- length
Type: System.Int32
The maximum number of characters in the substrings to compare.
- comparisonType
Type: System.StringComparison
One of the enumeration values that specifies the rules to use in the comparison.
Return Value
Type: System.Int32
A 32-bit signed integer indicating the lexical relationship between the two comparands.
Value |
Condition |
|---|---|
Less than zero |
The substring in the strA parameter is less than the substring in the strB parameter. |
Zero |
The substrings are equal, or the length parameter is zero. |
Greater than zero |
The substring in strA is greater than the substring in strB. |
Exceptions
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentOutOfRangeException | indexA is greater than strA.Length. -or- indexB is greater than strB.Length. -or- indexA, indexB, or length is negative. -or- Either indexA or indexB is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic), and length is greater than zero. |
| ArgumentException | comparisonType is not a StringComparison value. |
Remarks
The substrings to compare start in strA at indexA, and in strB at indexB. Both indexA and indexB are zero-based; that is, the first character in strA and strB is at position zero, not position one. The length of the first substring is equal to the length of strA minus indexA plus one. The length of the second substring is equal to the length of strB minus indexB plus one.
The number of characters to compare is the lesser of the lengths of the two substrings, and length. The indexA, indexB, and length parameters must be nonnegative.
The comparisonType parameter indicates whether the comparison should use the current or invariant culture, honor or ignore the case of the comparands, or use word (culture-sensitive) or ordinal (culture-insensitive) sort rules.
One or both comparands can be nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic). By definition, any string, including the empty string (""), compares greater than a null reference; and two null references compare equal to each other.
The comparison terminates when an inequality is discovered or both substrings have been compared. However, if the two strings compare equal to the end of one string, and the other string has characters remaining, the string with remaining characters is considered greater. The return value is the result of the last comparison performed.
Unexpected results can occur when comparisons are affected by culture-specific casing rules. For example, in Turkish, the following example yields the wrong results because the file system in Turkish does not use linguistic casing rules for the letter 'i' in "file".
Compare the path name to "file" using an ordinal comparison. The correct code to do this is as follows:
Examples
The following code example compares two substrings.
' Sample for String.Compare(String, Int32, String, Int32, Int32)
Class Example
Public Shared Sub Demo(ByVal outputBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock)
' 0123456
Dim str1 As [String] = "machine"
Dim str2 As [String] = "device"
Dim str As [String]
Dim result As Integer
outputBlock.Text &= vbCrLf
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("str1 = '{0}', str2 = '{1}'", str1, str2) & vbCrLf
result = [String].Compare(str1, 2, str2, 0, 2)
str = IIf(result < 0, "less than", IIf(result > 0, "greater than", "equal to"))
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Substring '{0}' in '{1}' is ", str1.Substring(2, 2), str1)
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0} ", str)
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("substring '{0}' in '{1}'.", str2.Substring(0, 2), str2) & vbCrLf
End Sub 'Main
End Class 'Sample
'
'This example produces the following results:
'
'str1 = 'machine', str2 = 'device'
'Substring 'ch' in 'machine' is less than substring 'de' in 'device'.
'
// Sample for String.Compare(String, Int32, String, Int32, Int32)
using System;
class Example
{
public static void Demo(System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outputBlock)
{
// 0123456
String str1 = "machine";
String str2 = "device";
String str;
int result;
outputBlock.Text += "\n";
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("str1 = '{0}', str2 = '{1}'", str1, str2) + "\n";
result = String.Compare(str1, 2, str2, 0, 2);
str = ((result < 0) ? "less than" : ((result > 0) ? "greater than" : "equal to"));
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Substring '{0}' in '{1}' is ", str1.Substring(2, 2), str1);
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0} ", str);
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("substring '{0}' in '{1}'.", str2.Substring(0, 2), str2) + "\n";
}
}
/*
This example produces the following results:
str1 = 'machine', str2 = 'device'
Substring 'ch' in 'machine' is less than substring 'de' in 'device'.
*/
Version Information
Silverlight
Supported in: 5, 4, 3
Silverlight for Windows Phone
Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0
XNA Framework
Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0
Platforms
For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.