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CompareOptions Enum

Definition

Defines the string comparison options to use with CompareInfo.

This enumeration supports a bitwise combination of its member values.

C#
[System.Flags]
public enum CompareOptions
C#
[System.Flags]
[System.Serializable]
public enum CompareOptions
C#
[System.Flags]
[System.Serializable]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)]
public enum CompareOptions
Inheritance
CompareOptions
Attributes

Fields

Name Value Description
None 0

Indicates the default option settings for string comparisons.

IgnoreCase 1

Indicates that the string comparison must ignore case.

IgnoreNonSpace 2

Indicates that the string comparison must ignore nonspacing combining characters, such as diacritics. The Unicode Standard defines combining characters as characters that are combined with base characters to produce a new character. Nonspacing combining characters do not occupy a spacing position by themselves when rendered.

IgnoreSymbols 4

Indicates that the string comparison must ignore symbols, such as white-space characters, punctuation, currency symbols, the percent sign, mathematical symbols, the ampersand, and so on.

IgnoreKanaType 8

Indicates that the string comparison must ignore the Kana type. Kana type refers to Japanese hiragana and katakana characters, which represent phonetic sounds in the Japanese language. Hiragana is used for native Japanese expressions and words, while katakana is used for words borrowed from other languages, such as "computer" or "Internet". A phonetic sound can be expressed in both hiragana and katakana. If this value is selected, the hiragana character for one sound is considered equal to the katakana character for the same sound.

IgnoreWidth 16

Indicates that the string comparison must ignore the character width. For example, Japanese katakana characters can be written as full-width or half-width. If this value is selected, the katakana characters written as full-width are considered equal to the same characters written as half-width.

OrdinalIgnoreCase 268435456

String comparison must ignore case, then perform an ordinal comparison. This technique is equivalent to converting the string to uppercase using the invariant culture and then performing an ordinal comparison on the result.

StringSort 536870912

Indicates that the string comparison must use the string sort algorithm. In a string sort, the hyphen and the apostrophe, as well as other nonalphanumeric symbols, come before alphanumeric characters.

Ordinal 1073741824

Indicates that the string comparison must use successive Unicode UTF-16 encoded values of the string (code unit by code unit comparison), leading to a fast comparison but one that is culture-insensitive. A string starting with a code unit XXXX16 comes before a string starting with YYYY16, if XXXX16 is less than YYYY16. This value cannot be combined with other CompareOptions values and must be used alone.

Examples

C#
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Globalization;

public class SamplesCompareOptions  {

   private class MyStringComparer: IComparer {
      private CompareInfo myComp;
      private CompareOptions myOptions = CompareOptions.None;

      // Constructs a comparer using the specified CompareOptions.
      public MyStringComparer( CompareInfo cmpi, CompareOptions options )  {
         myComp = cmpi;
         this.myOptions = options;
      }

      // Compares strings with the CompareOptions specified in the constructor.
      public int Compare(Object a, Object b) {
         if (a == b) return 0;
         if (a == null) return -1;
         if (b == null) return 1;

         String sa = a as String;
         String sb = b as String;
         if (sa != null && sb != null)
            return myComp.Compare(sa, sb, myOptions);
         throw new ArgumentException("a and b should be strings.");
      }
   }

   public static void Main()  {

      // Creates and initializes an array of strings to sort.
      String[] myArr = new String[9] { "cant", "bill's", "coop", "cannot", "billet", "can't", "con", "bills", "co-op" };
      Console.WriteLine( "\nInitially," );
      foreach ( String myStr in myArr )
         Console.WriteLine( myStr );

      // Creates and initializes a Comparer to use.
      //CultureInfo myCI = new CultureInfo( "en-US", false );
      MyStringComparer myComp = new MyStringComparer(CompareInfo.GetCompareInfo("en-US"), CompareOptions.None);

      // Sorts the array without StringSort.
      Array.Sort( myArr, myComp );
      Console.WriteLine( "\nAfter sorting without CompareOptions.StringSort:" );
      foreach ( String myStr in myArr )
         Console.WriteLine( myStr );

      // Sorts the array with StringSort.
      myComp = new MyStringComparer(CompareInfo.GetCompareInfo("en-US"), CompareOptions.StringSort);
      Array.Sort( myArr, myComp );
      Console.WriteLine( "\nAfter sorting with CompareOptions.StringSort:" );
      foreach ( String myStr in myArr )
         Console.WriteLine( myStr );
   }
}

/*
This code produces the following output.

Initially,
cant
bill's
coop
cannot
billet
can't
con
bills
co-op

After sorting without CompareOptions.StringSort:
billet
bills
bill's
cannot
cant
can't
con
coop
co-op

After sorting with CompareOptions.StringSort:
bill's
billet
bills
can't
cannot
cant
co-op
con
coop

*/

Remarks

For more information about this API, see Supplemental API remarks for CompareOptions.

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 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also