C# String CompareTo(String)

Description

String CompareTo(String) compares this instance with a specified String object and indicates whether this instance precedes, follows, or appears in the same position in the sort order as the specified String.

Syntax

String.CompareTo(String) has the following syntax.

public int CompareTo(
  string strB
)

Parameters

String.CompareTo(String) has the following parameters.

• strB - The string to compare with this instance.

Returns

String.CompareTo(String) method returns A 32-bit signed integer that indicates whether this instance precedes, follows, or appears in the same position in the sort order as the value parameter. Value Condition Less than zero This instance precedes strB. Zero This instance has the same position in the sort order as strB. Greater than zero This instance follows strB. -or- strB is null.

Example

For example, a comparison of "animal" with "ani-mal" (using a soft hyphen, or U+00AD) indicates that the two strings are equivalent, as the following example shows.

/*from w ww.  j a  v  a  2  s .c  o  m*/
using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string s1 = "ani\u00ADmal";
      string s2 = "animal";

      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of '{0}' and '{1}': {2}", 
                        s1, s2, s1.CompareTo(s2));
   }
}

The code above generates the following result.