VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

StrComp Function

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings

Syntax

StrComp(string1, string2[, compare])

string1 (required; String)

Any string expression

string2 (required; String)

Any string expression

compare (optional; CompareMethod constant)

Either CompareMethod.Binary or CompareMethod.Text

Return Value

Integer

Description

Determines whether two strings are equal and, if not, which of two strings has the greater value

Rules at a Glance

• The compare argument is one of CompareMethod.Binary or CompareMethod.Text. If no comparison is specified, VB uses the value of Option Compare.

• The following table describes the possible return values from the StrComp function:

Scenario	Return value
string1 < string2	-1
string1 = string2	0
string1 > string2	1
string1 or string2 is Null	Null

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• Using the comparison operators <, <=, >, and >= to compare strings performs a character-by-character binary comparison.

• The StrComp function can provide a significant performance improvement (in the neighborhood of 30% to 70%) over the comparison operators.

See Also

StrConv Function, StrDup Function, StrReverse Function