StringCompare (Function)

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Equivalence between StringCompare and comparison operators
Comparing numeric values
Characters taken into account for punctuation and spaces
StringCompare and UNICODE

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StringCompare (Function)

In french: ChaîneCompare

Compares two strings character by character:

according to the sequence of ASCII characters.
according to the alphabetical order.

Example

MyString1 is string = "Developing is fantastic"
MyString2 is string = "Developing is simple"
ResultCompare is int = StringCompare(MyString1, MyString2)
// ResultCompare = -1: the character 'f' comes before the character 's'

Syntax

<Result> = StringCompare(<First string> , <Second string> [, <Options>])

<Result>: Integer

0 if the character strings are equal.
-1 if the characters in <First string> come before the characters in <Second string> according to the ASCII order or to the lexicographic order.
1 if the characters in <First string> come after the characters in <Second string> according to the ASCII order or to the lexicographic order.

<First string>: Character string

Character string to compare.

<Second string>: Character string

Character string to compare.

<Options>: Optional constant (or combination of constants)

Comparison options:
ccIgnoreAccent Compares strings ignoring accented characters.
This constant is not available.
ccIgnoreCase Compares strings ignoring the case (uppercase/lowercase characters).
ccIgnoreInsideSpace Compares strings ignoring spaces within the strings.
This constant is not available.
ccIgnorePunctuationAndSpace Compares strings ignoring punctuation and spaces (see Notes for more details).
This constant is not available.
ccIgnoreSpace Compares strings ignoring spaces before and after the strings.
ccLexicographicOrder Compares strings in lexicographical order (for example, 'é' is between 'e' and 'f').
This constant is not available.
ccNormal
(default value) Standard comparison, similar to the '=' operator.
ccRespectNumeric Compares strings taking into account the numeric values within the strings (in this case, "10" comes after "9").

Remarks

Equivalence between StringCompare and comparison operators

= operator:
The = operator is equivalent to the following code: StringCompare(<String1>, <String2>, ccNormal)
~= operator:
The ~= operator is equivalent to the following code: StringCompare(<String1>, <String2>, ccIgnoreCasse, + ccIgnoreAccent + ccIgnoreSpace)
This syntax is not available.
~~ operator:
The ~~ operator is equivalent to the following code: StringCompare(<String1>, <String2>, ccIgnoreCasse + ccIgnoreAccent + ccIgnorePonctuationAndSpace)
This syntax is not available.
<, >, <= and >= operators:
These operators are equivalent to the following code: StringCompare(<String1>, <String2>, ccLexicographicOrder)
This syntax is not available.

For more details on comparison operators, see Comparison operators.

Comparing numeric values

The ccRespectNumeric constant sorts by taking into account the numeric value represented by digits and not just the alphabetical order of the numbers.

Without the ccRespectNumeric constant, the strings below will be sorted in the following order: "string1", "string10", "string2"

With the ccRespectNumeric constant, the same strings will be sorted in this order: "string1", "string2", "string10"

Examples of comparison performed with and without the ccRespectNumeric constant:


Sorting strings containing digits without the ccRespectNumeric constant	Sorting strings containing digits with the ccRespectNumeric constant
0	00
00	0
001	001
009	01
01	1
010	009
09	09
1	9
10	010
11	10
9	11


Sorting strings containing digits without the ccRespectNumeric constant	Sorting strings containing digits with the ccRespectNumeric constant
10.00Aa	7.00Aa
10.01Gh	7.01Ba
10.50Ag	7.01Dfe
11.00Aa	7.50Fg
7.00Aa	7.51Tga
7.01Ba	8.00Aa
7.01Dfe	8.01Gjk
7.50Fg	8.01Ty
7.51Tga	8.50Ze
8.00Aa	9.00Aa
8.01Gjk	9.80Er
8.01Ty	9.99Zaaa
8.50Ze	10.00Aa
9.00Aa	10.01Gh
9.80Er	10.50Ag
9.99Zaaa	11.00Aa

Characters taken into account for punctuation and spaces

The characters taken into account for punctuation and spaces are provided by the system. To get the list of these characters, write the following WLanguage code:

s is string
FOR i = 0 TO 255
IF Charact(i) <> StringFormat(Charact(i), ccIgnorePunctuationAndSpace) THEN
s += Charact(i)
END
END
Info(s)
ToClipboard(s)

StringCompare and UNICODE

You have the ability to use ANSI strings, Unicode strings and buffers in the different parameters of the function.

The following conversion rule is used for the Ansi systems (Windows or Linux):

If at least one of the strings is a buffer, all the strings are converted to buffers and the operation is performed with buffers.
If the first condition is not met and there is at least one Unicode string, all the strings are converted to Unicode and the operation is performed in Unicode (the conversion is performed with the current character set, if necessary).
Otherwise, the operation is performed in Ansi.

The conversion rule used for Unicode systems is as follows:

If at least one of the strings is a buffer, all the strings are converted to buffers and the operation is performed with buffers.
Otherwise, the operation is performed in Unicode.

For more details on UNICODE, see Managing UNICODE.

Reminder: The linguistic parameters used are defined during the call to ChangeCharset.

Business / UI classification: Neutral code

Component: wd290vm.dll