Comparer.Compare(Object, Object) Method

Definition

Performs a case-sensitive comparison of two objects of the same type and returns a value indicating whether one is less than, equal to, or greater than the other.

public int Compare (object a, object b);
public int Compare (object? a, object? b);

Parameters

a
Object

The first object to compare.

b
Object

The second object to compare.

Returns

A signed integer that indicates the relative values of a and b, as shown in the following table.

Value Meaning
Less than zero a is less than b.
Zero a equals b.
Greater than zero a is greater than b.

Implements

Exceptions

Neither a nor b implements the IComparable interface.

-or-

a and b are of different types and neither one can handle comparisons with the other.

Examples

The following code example shows how Compare returns different values depending on the culture associated with the Comparer.

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Globalization;

public class SamplesComparer  {

   public static void Main()  {

      // Creates the strings to compare.
      String str1 = "llegar";
      String str2 = "lugar";
      Console.WriteLine( "Comparing \"{0}\" and \"{1}\" ...", str1, str2 );

      // Uses the DefaultInvariant Comparer.
      Console.WriteLine( "   Invariant Comparer: {0}", Comparer.DefaultInvariant.Compare( str1, str2 ) );

      // Uses the Comparer based on the culture "es-ES" (Spanish - Spain, international sort).
      Comparer myCompIntl = new Comparer( new CultureInfo( "es-ES", false ) );
      Console.WriteLine( "   International Sort: {0}", myCompIntl.Compare( str1, str2 ) );

      // Uses the Comparer based on the culture identifier 0x040A (Spanish - Spain, traditional sort).
      Comparer myCompTrad = new Comparer( new CultureInfo( 0x040A, false ) );
      Console.WriteLine( "   Traditional Sort  : {0}", myCompTrad.Compare( str1, str2 ) );
   }
}

/*
This code produces the following output.

Comparing "llegar" and "lugar" ...
   Invariant Comparer: -1
   International Sort: -1
   Traditional Sort  : 1

*/

Remarks

If a implements IComparable, then a. CompareTo (b) is returned; otherwise, if b implements IComparable, then the negated result of b. CompareTo (a) is returned.

Comparing null with any type is allowed and does not generate an exception when using IComparable. When sorting, null is considered to be less than any other object.

String comparisons might have different results depending on the culture. For more information on culture-specific comparisons, see the System.Globalization namespace and Globalization and Localization.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also