CaseInsensitiveComparer Class (System.Collections)

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.NET Framework Class Library
CaseInsensitiveComparer Class

Compares two objects for equivalence, ignoring the case of strings.

Inheritance Hierarchy
System.Object
  System.Collections.CaseInsensitiveComparer

Namespace:  System.Collections
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
Syntax
Visual Basic
<SerializableAttribute> _
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
Public Class CaseInsensitiveComparer _
	Implements IComparer
C#
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public class CaseInsensitiveComparer : IComparer
Visual C++
[SerializableAttribute]
[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
public ref class CaseInsensitiveComparer : IComparer
F#
[<SerializableAttribute>]
[<ComVisibleAttribute(true)>]
type CaseInsensitiveComparer =  
    class
        interface IComparer
    end

The CaseInsensitiveComparer type exposes the following members.

Constructors
  Name Description
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework CaseInsensitiveComparer() Initializes a new instance of the CaseInsensitiveComparer class using the Thread.CurrentCulture of the current thread.
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework CaseInsensitiveComparer(CultureInfo) Initializes a new instance of the CaseInsensitiveComparer class using the specified System.Globalization.CultureInfo.
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Properties
  Name Description
Public property Static member Supported by the XNA Framework Default Gets an instance of CaseInsensitiveComparer that is associated with the Thread.CurrentCulture of the current thread and that is always available.
Public property Static member Supported by the XNA Framework DefaultInvariant Gets an instance of CaseInsensitiveComparer that is associated with CultureInfo.InvariantCulture and that is always available.
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Methods
  Name Description
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework Compare Performs a case-insensitive 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 method Supported by the XNA Framework Equals(Object) Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Supported by the XNA Framework Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework GetHashCode Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework GetType Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Supported by the XNA Framework MemberwiseClone Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Supported by the XNA Framework ToString Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)
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Remarks

CaseInsensitiveComparer implements the IComparer interface supporting case-insensitive comparisons on strings, just as CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider implements the IHashCodeProvider interface supporting case-insensitive comparisons on strings.

The Comparer class is the default implementation of the IComparer interface and performs case-sensitive string comparisons.

The objects used as keys by a Hashtable are required to override the Object.GetHashCode method (or the IHashCodeProvider interface) and the Object.Equals method (or the IComparer interface). The implementation of both methods or interfaces must handle case sensitivity the same way; otherwise, the Hashtable might behave incorrectly. For example, when creating a Hashtable, you must use this class with the CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider class or any case-insensitive IHashCodeProvider implementation.

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

Examples

The following code example creates a case-sensitive hash table and a case-insensitive hash table and demonstrates the difference in their behavior, even if both contain the same elements.

Visual Basic

Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Globalization

Public Class SamplesHashtable

   Public Shared Sub Main()

      ' Create a Hashtable using the default hash code provider and the default comparer.
      Dim myHT1 As New Hashtable()
      myHT1.Add("FIRST", "Hello")
      myHT1.Add("SECOND", "World")
      myHT1.Add("THIRD", "!")

      ' Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      ' based on the culture of the current thread.
      Dim myHT2 As New Hashtable(New CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider(), New CaseInsensitiveComparer())
      myHT2.Add("FIRST", "Hello")
      myHT2.Add("SECOND", "World")
      myHT2.Add("THIRD", "!")

      ' Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      ' based on the InvariantCulture.
      Dim myHT3 As New Hashtable(CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider.DefaultInvariant, CaseInsensitiveComparer.DefaultInvariant)
      myHT3.Add("FIRST", "Hello")
      myHT3.Add("SECOND", "World")
      myHT3.Add("THIRD", "!")

      ' Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      ' based on the Turkish culture (tr-TR), where "I" is not the uppercase version of "i".
      Dim myCul As New CultureInfo("tr-TR")
      Dim myHT4 As New Hashtable(New CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider(myCul), New CaseInsensitiveComparer(myCul))
      myHT4.Add("FIRST", "Hello")
      myHT4.Add("SECOND", "World")
      myHT4.Add("THIRD", "!")

      ' Search for a key in each hashtable.
      Console.WriteLine("first is in myHT1: {0}", myHT1.ContainsKey("first"))
      Console.WriteLine("first is in myHT2: {0}", myHT2.ContainsKey("first"))
      Console.WriteLine("first is in myHT3: {0}", myHT3.ContainsKey("first"))
      Console.WriteLine("first is in myHT4: {0}", myHT4.ContainsKey("first"))

   End Sub 'Main 

End Class 'SamplesHashtable


'This code produces the following output.  Results vary depending on the system's culture settings.
'
'first is in myHT1: False
'first is in myHT2: True
'first is in myHT3: True
'first is in myHT4: False
C#

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

public class SamplesHashtable  {

   public static void Main()  {

      // Create a Hashtable using the default hash code provider and the default comparer.
      Hashtable myHT1 = new Hashtable();
      myHT1.Add("FIRST", "Hello");
      myHT1.Add("SECOND", "World");
      myHT1.Add("THIRD", "!");

      // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      // based on the culture of the current thread.
      Hashtable myHT2 = new Hashtable( new CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider(), new CaseInsensitiveComparer() );
      myHT2.Add("FIRST", "Hello");
      myHT2.Add("SECOND", "World");
      myHT2.Add("THIRD", "!");

      // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      // based on the InvariantCulture.
      Hashtable myHT3 = new Hashtable( CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider.DefaultInvariant, CaseInsensitiveComparer.DefaultInvariant );
      myHT3.Add("FIRST", "Hello");
      myHT3.Add("SECOND", "World");
      myHT3.Add("THIRD", "!");

      // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
      // based on the Turkish culture (tr-TR), where "I" is not the uppercase version of "i".
      CultureInfo myCul = new CultureInfo( "tr-TR" );
      Hashtable myHT4 = new Hashtable( new CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider( myCul ), new CaseInsensitiveComparer( myCul ) );
      myHT4.Add("FIRST", "Hello");
      myHT4.Add("SECOND", "World");
      myHT4.Add("THIRD", "!");

      // Search for a key in each hashtable.
      Console.WriteLine( "first is in myHT1: {0}", myHT1.ContainsKey( "first" ) );
      Console.WriteLine( "first is in myHT2: {0}", myHT2.ContainsKey( "first" ) );
      Console.WriteLine( "first is in myHT3: {0}", myHT3.ContainsKey( "first" ) );
      Console.WriteLine( "first is in myHT4: {0}", myHT4.ContainsKey( "first" ) );

   }

}


/* 
This code produces the following output.  Results vary depending on the system's culture settings.

first is in myHT1: False
first is in myHT2: True
first is in myHT3: True
first is in myHT4: False

*/
Visual C++

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Collections;
using namespace System::Globalization;
int main()
{

   // Create a Hashtable using the default hash code provider and the default comparer.
   Hashtable^ myHT1 = gcnew Hashtable;
   myHT1->Add( "FIRST", "Hello" );
   myHT1->Add( "SECOND", "World" );
   myHT1->Add( "THIRD", "!" );

   // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
   // based on the culture of the current thread.
   Hashtable^ myHT2 = gcnew Hashtable( gcnew CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider,gcnew CaseInsensitiveComparer );
   myHT2->Add( "FIRST", "Hello" );
   myHT2->Add( "SECOND", "World" );
   myHT2->Add( "THIRD", "!" );

   // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
   // based on the InvariantCulture.
   Hashtable^ myHT3 = gcnew Hashtable( CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider::DefaultInvariant,CaseInsensitiveComparer::DefaultInvariant );
   myHT3->Add( "FIRST", "Hello" );
   myHT3->Add( "SECOND", "World" );
   myHT3->Add( "THIRD", "!" );

   // Create a Hashtable using a case-insensitive code provider and a case-insensitive comparer,
   // based on the Turkish culture (tr-TR), where "I" is not the uppercase version of "i".
   CultureInfo^ myCul = gcnew CultureInfo( "tr-TR" );
   Hashtable^ myHT4 = gcnew Hashtable( gcnew CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider( myCul ),gcnew CaseInsensitiveComparer( myCul ) );
   myHT4->Add( "FIRST", "Hello" );
   myHT4->Add( "SECOND", "World" );
   myHT4->Add( "THIRD", "!" );

   // Search for a key in each hashtable.
   Console::WriteLine( "first is in myHT1: {0}", myHT1->ContainsKey( "first" ) );
   Console::WriteLine( "first is in myHT2: {0}", myHT2->ContainsKey( "first" ) );
   Console::WriteLine( "first is in myHT3: {0}", myHT3->ContainsKey( "first" ) );
   Console::WriteLine( "first is in myHT4: {0}", myHT4->ContainsKey( "first" ) );
}

/* 
This code produces the following output.  Results vary depending on the system's culture settings.

first is in myHT1: False
first is in myHT2: True
first is in myHT3: True
first is in myHT4: False

*/
Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1
Platforms

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

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
Thread Safety
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
See Also

Reference

System.Collections Namespace
IComparer
IComparable
Comparer
System.Globalization.CompareInfo
Thread.CurrentCulture
System.Globalization.CultureInfo
CaseInsensitiveHashCodeProvider

Other Resources

Performing Culture-Insensitive String Operations in Collections