IComparer.Compare Method
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Comparer<T>.IComparer.Compare Method

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

Compares two objects and returns a value indicating whether one is less than, equal to, or greater than the other.

Namespace:  System.Collections.Generic
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

int IComparer.Compare(
	Object x,
	Object y
)

Parameters

x
Type: System.Object
The first object to compare.
y
Type: System.Object
The second object to compare.

Return Value

Type: System.Int32
A signed integer that indicates the relative values of x and y, as shown in the following table.

Value

Condition

Less than zero

x is less than y.

Zero

x equals y.

Greater than zero

x is greater than y.

Implements

IComparer.Compare(Object, Object)

ExceptionCondition
ArgumentException

x or y is of a type that cannot be cast to type T.

-or-

x and y do not implement either the System.IComparable<T> generic interface or the System.IComparable interface.

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.

Notes to Callers

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.

Windows Phone OS

Supported in: 8.1, 8.0, 7.1, 7.0

Windows Phone

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