Comparer<T>.IComparer.Compare Method

int IComparer.Compare(
	Object x,
	Object y
)

Implements

This method is a wrapper for the Compare(T, T) method, so obj must be cast to the type specified by the generic argument T of the current instance. If it cannot be cast to T, an ArgumentException is thrown.

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

Compare and EqualityComparer<T>.Equals behave differently in terms of culture-sensitivity and case-sensitivity.

For string comparisons, the StringComparer class is recommended over Comparer<String>. Properties of the StringComparer class return predefined instances that perform string comparisons with different combinations of culture-sensitivity and case-sensitivity. The case-sensitivity and culture-sensitivity are consistent among the members of the same StringComparer instance.

For more information on culture-specific comparisons, see the System.Globalization namespace and Encoding and Localization.

The following example shows how to use the IComparer.Compare method to compare two objects. This example is part of a larger example provided for the Comparer<T> class.

// This explicit interface implementation
// compares first by the length.
// Returns -1 because the length of BoxA
// is less than the length of BoxB.
BoxLengthFirst LengthFirst = new BoxLengthFirst(); 

Comparer<Box> bc = (Comparer<Box>) LengthFirst;

Box BoxA = new Box(2, 6, 8);
Box BoxB = new Box(10, 12, 14);
int x = LengthFirst.Compare(BoxA, BoxB);
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine(x.ToString());

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference