Unlocking the Power of String Comparison

Understanding the Syntax

The Equals() method is a part of the String class, and its syntax is straightforward:

bool result = String.Equals(a, b);

Here, a and b represent the two strings being compared.

What to Expect

The Equals() method returns:

• True if the strings are identical.
• False if they’re not.

Putting it to the Test

Let’s see this in action. In our first example, we compare two strings: str1 and str2.

string str1 = "Hello";
string str2 = "Hello";
bool isEqual = String.Equals(str1, str2); // returns True

As expected, String.Equals(str1, str2) returns True, since they’re equal. However, when we compare str1 to str3,

string str3 = "Goodbye";
bool isEqual = String.Equals(str1, str3); // returns False

the method returns False, because they’re not identical.

Case Sensitivity

But what about case sensitivity? Does Equals() consider uppercase and lowercase letters as distinct?

The answer is yes. When we compare “Ice cream” to “ice cream”, the method returns False, because it treats the uppercase and lowercase letters differently.

string str4 = "Ice cream";
string str5 = "ice cream";
bool isEqual = String.Equals(str4, str5); // returns False

Customizing Your Comparison

Fortunately, there’s a way to ignore case sensitivity if needed. By using the StringComparison parameter, you can specify whether to consider letter cases while comparing strings.

bool isEqual = String.Equals(str4, str5, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase); // returns True

This adds an extra layer of flexibility to your string comparisons.