String Class

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
System.String

Assembly

mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

A string is a sequential collection of Unicode characters that is used to represent text. A String object is a sequential collection of System.Char objects that represent a string. The value of the String object is the content of the sequential collection, and that value is immutable (that is, it is read-only). For more information about the immutability of strings, see the Immutability and the StringBuilder class section later in this topic.The maximum size of a String object in memory is 2GB, or about 1 billion characters.

Note

To view the .NET Framework source code for this type, see the Reference Source. You can browse through the source code online, download the reference for offline viewing, and step through the sources (including patches and updates) during debugging; see instructions.

Syntax

[SerializableAttribute]
  [ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
  public sealed class String : IComparable, ICloneable, IConvertible, 
    IEnumerable, IComparable<string>, IEnumerable<char>, IEquatable<string>

By assigning a string literal to a variable

This is the most commonly used method for creating a string. The following example uses assignment to create several strings. Note that in C#, because the backslash (\) is an escape character, literal backslashes in a string must be escaped or the entire string must be @-quoted.

string string1 = "This is a string created by assignment.";
  Console.WriteLine(string1);
  string string2a = "The path is C:\\PublicDocuments\\Report1.doc";
  Console.WriteLine(string2a);
  string string2b = @"The path is C:\PublicDocuments\Report1.doc";
  Console.WriteLine(string2b);
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       This is a string created by assignment.
  //       The path is C:\PublicDocuments\Report1.doc
  //       The path is C:\PublicDocuments\Report1.doc

Assign a string literal to a variable

By calling a String class constructor.

The adjoining example instantiates strings by calling several class constructors. Note that some of the constructors include pointers to character arrays or signed byte arrays as parameters. Visual Basic does not support calls to these constructors. For detailed information about String constructors, see the String constructor summary.

char[] chars = { 'w', 'o', 'r', 'd' };
  sbyte[] bytes = { 0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x00 };

  // Create a string from a character array.
  string string1 = new string(chars);
  Console.WriteLine(string1);

  // Create a string that consists of a character repeated 20 times.
  string string2 = new string('c', 20);
  Console.WriteLine(string2);

  string stringFromBytes = null;
  string stringFromChars = null;
  unsafe
  {
   fixed (sbyte* pbytes = bytes)
   {
      // Create a string from a pointer to a signed byte array.
      stringFromBytes = new string(pbytes);
   }
   fixed (char* pchars = chars)
   {
      // Create a string from a pointer to a character array.
      stringFromChars = new string(pchars);
   }
  }
  Console.WriteLine(stringFromBytes);
  Console.WriteLine(stringFromChars);
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       word
  //       cccccccccccccccccccc
  //       ABCDE
  //       word

Call a class constructor

By concatenating strings

By using the string concatenation operator (+ in C# and & or + in Visual Basic) to create a single string from any combination of String instances and string literals. The following example illustrates the use of the string concatenation operator.

string string1 = "Today is " + DateTime.Now.ToString("D") + ".";
  Console.WriteLine(string1);

  string string2 = "This is one sentence. " + "This is a second. ";
  string2 += "This is a third sentence.";
  Console.WriteLine(string2);
  // The example displays output like the following:
  //    Today is Tuesday, July 06, 2011.
  //    This is one sentence. This is a second. This is a third sentence.

Concatenate strings

By retrieving a property or calling a method that returns a string

The adjoining example uses the methods of the String class to extract a substring from a larger string.

string sentence = "This sentence has five words.";
// Extract the second word.
int startPosition = sentence.IndexOf(" ") + 1;
string word2 = sentence.Substring(startPosition,
                                  sentence.IndexOf(" ", startPosition) - startPosition);
Console.WriteLine("Second word: " + word2);
// The example displays the following output:
//       Second word: sentence

Extract a substring from a larger string

By calling a formatting method to convert a value or object to its string representation

The following example uses the feature to embed the string representation of two objects into a string.

DateTime dateAndTime = new DateTime(2011, 7, 6, 7, 32, 0);
  double temperature = 68.3;
  string result = String.Format("At {0:t} on {0:D}, the temperature was {1:F1} degrees Fahrenheit.",
                              dateAndTime, temperature);
  Console.WriteLine(result);
  // The example displays the following output:
  //       At 7:32 AM on Wednesday, July 06, 2011, the temperature was 68.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

Convert objects to their string representation

Char objects and Unicode characters

Each character in a string is defined by a Unicode scalar value, also called a Unicode code point or the ordinal (numeric) value of the Unicode character. Each code point is encoded by using UTF-16 encoding, and the numeric value of each element of the encoding is represented by a Char object.

A single Char object usually represents a single code point; that is, the numeric value of the Char equals the code point. For example, the code point for the character "a" is U+0061. However, a code point might require more than one encoded element (more than one Char object). The Unicode standard defines three types of characters that correspond to multiple Char objects: graphemes, Unicode supplementary code points, and characters in the supplementary planes.

Graphemes

A grapheme is represented by a base character followed by one or more combining characters. For example, the character ä is represented by a Char object whose code point is U+0061 followed by a Char object whose code point is U+0308. This character can also be defined by a single Char object that has a code point of U+00E4. As the adjoining example shows, a culture-sensitive comparison for equality indicates that these two representations are equal, although an ordinary ordinal comparison does not. However, if the two strings are normalized, an ordinal comparison also indicates that they are equal. (For more information on normalizing strings, see the Normalization section.)

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@".\graphemes.txt");
      string grapheme = "\u0061\u0308";
      sw.WriteLine(grapheme);

      string singleChar = "\u00e4";
      sw.WriteLine(singleChar);

      sw.WriteLine("{0} = {1} (Culture-sensitive): {2}", grapheme, singleChar, 
                   String.Equals(grapheme, singleChar, 
                                 StringComparison.CurrentCulture));
      sw.WriteLine("{0} = {1} (Ordinal): {2}", grapheme, singleChar, 
                   String.Equals(grapheme, singleChar, 
                                 StringComparison.Ordinal));
      sw.WriteLine("{0} = {1} (Normalized Ordinal): {2}", grapheme, singleChar, 
                   String.Equals(grapheme.Normalize(), 
                                 singleChar.Normalize(), 
                                 StringComparison.Ordinal));
      sw.Close(); 
   }
}
// The example produces the following output:
//       ä
//       ä
//       ä = ä (Culture-sensitive): True
//       ä = ä (Ordinal): False
//       ä = ä (Normalized Ordinal): True

Unicode supplementary code points

A Unicode supplementary code point (a surrogate pair) is represented by a Char object whose code point is a high surrogate followed by a Char object whose code point is a low surrogate. The code units of high surrogates range from U+D800 to U+DBFF. The code units of low surrogates range from U+DC00 to U+DFFF. Surrogate pairs are used to represent characters in the 16 Unicode supplementary planes. The following example creates a surrogate character and passes it to the Char.IsSurrogatePair(Char, Char) method to determine whether it is a surrogate pair.

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string surrogate = "\uD800\uDC03";
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr < surrogate.Length; ctr++) 
         Console.Write("U+{0:X2} ", Convert.ToUInt16(surrogate[ctr]));

      Console.WriteLine();
      Console.WriteLine("   Is Surrogate Pair: {0}", 
                        Char.IsSurrogatePair(surrogate[0], surrogate[1]));
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       U+D800 U+DC03
//          Is Surrogate Pair: True

In the .NET Framework, a String object can include embedded null characters, which count as a part of the string's length. However, in some languages such as C and C++, a null character indicates the end of a string;it is not considered a part of the string and is not counted as part of the string's length. This means that the following common assumptions that C and C++ programmers or libraries written in C or C++ might make about strings are not necessarily valid when applied to String objects:

The value returned by the strlen or wcslen functions does not necessarily equal String.Length.
The string created by the strcpy_s or wcscpy_s functions is not necessarily identical to the string created by the String.Copy method.

You should ensure that native C and C++ code that instantiates String objects, and code that is passed String objects through platform invoke, do not assume that an embedded null character marks the end of the string.

Embedded null characters in a string are also treated differently when a string is sorted (or compared) and when a string is searched. Null characters are ignored when performing culture-sensitive comparisons between two strings, including comparisons using the invariant culture. They are considered only for ordinal or case-insensitive ordinal comparisons. On the other hand, embedded null characters are always considered when searching a string with methods such as Contains, StartsWith, and IndexOf.

The Chars property lets you access individual Char objects by their index position in the string. Because the Chars property is the default property (in Visual Basic) or the indexer (in C#), you can access the individual Char objects in a string by using code such as that shown in the adjoining sample.

The adjoining code looks for white space or punctuation characters in a string to determine how many words the string contains.

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string s1 = "This string consists of a single short sentence.";
      int nWords = 0;

      s1 = s1.Trim();      
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr < s1.Length; ctr++) {
         if (Char.IsPunctuation(s1[ctr]) | Char.IsWhiteSpace(s1[ctr]))
            nWords++;              
      }
      Console.WriteLine("The sentence\n   {0}\nhas {1} words.",
                        s1, nWords);                                                                     
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       The sentence
//          This string consists of a single short sentence.
//       has 8 words.

Because the String class implements the IEnumerable interface, you can also iterate through the Char objects in a string by using a foreach construct, as the adjoining example shows.

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string s1 = "This string consists of a single short sentence.";
      int nWords = 0;

      s1 = s1.Trim();      
      foreach (var ch in s1) {
         if (Char.IsPunctuation(ch) | Char.IsWhiteSpace(ch))
            nWords++;              
      }
      Console.WriteLine("The sentence\n   {0}\nhas {1} words.",
                        s1, nWords);                                                                     
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       The sentence
//          This string consists of a single short sentence.
//       has 8 words.

Consecutive index values might not correspond to consecutive Unicode characters, because a Unicode character might be encoded as more than one Char object. In particular, a string may contain multi-character units of text that are formed by a base character followed by one or more combining characters or by surrogate pairs. To work with Unicode characters instead of Char objects, use the System.Globalization.StringInfo and TextElementEnumerator classes.

The following example illustrates the difference between code that works with Char objects and code that works with Unicode characters. It compares the number of characters or text elements in each word of a sentence. The string includes two sequences of a base character followed by a combining character. The code works with text elements by using the StringInfo.GetTextElementEnumerator method and the TextElementEnumerator class to enumerate all the text elements in a string. You can also retrieve an array that contains the starting index of each text element by calling the StringInfo.ParseCombiningCharacters method.

For more information about working with units of text rather than individual Char values, see the StringInfo class.

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

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      // First sentence of The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Leroux.
      string opening = "Ce n'est pas sans une certaine émotion que "+
                       "je commence à raconter ici les aventures " +
                       "extraordinaires de Joseph Rouletabille."; 
      // Character counters.
      int nChars = 0;
      // Objects to store word count.
      List<int> chars = new List<int>();
      List<int> elements = new List<int>();

      foreach (var ch in opening) {
         // Skip the ' character.
         if (ch == '\u0027') continue;

         if (Char.IsWhiteSpace(ch) | (Char.IsPunctuation(ch))) {
            chars.Add(nChars);
            nChars = 0;
         }
         else {
            nChars++;
         }
      }

      TextElementEnumerator te = StringInfo.GetTextElementEnumerator(opening);
      while (te.MoveNext()) {
         string s = te.GetTextElement();   
         // Skip the ' character.
         if (s == "\u0027") continue;
         if ( String.IsNullOrEmpty(s.Trim()) | (s.Length == 1 && Char.IsPunctuation(Convert.ToChar(s)))) {
            elements.Add(nChars);         
            nChars = 0;
         }
         else {
            nChars++;
         }
      }

      // Display character counts.
      Console.WriteLine("{0,6} {1,20} {2,20}",
                        "Word #", "Char Objects", "Characters"); 
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr < chars.Count; ctr++) 
         Console.WriteLine("{0,6} {1,20} {2,20}",
                           ctr, chars[ctr], elements[ctr]); 
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Word #         Char Objects           Characters
//            0                    2                    2
//            1                    4                    4
//            2                    3                    3
//            3                    4                    4
//            4                    3                    3
//            5                    8                    8
//            6                    8                    7
//            7                    3                    3
//            8                    2                    2
//            9                    8                    8
//           10                    2                    1
//           11                    8                    8
//           12                    3                    3
//           13                    3                    3
//           14                    9                    9
//           15                   15                   15
//           16                    2                    2
//           17                    6                    6
//           18                   12                   12

Null strings and empty strings

A string that has been declared but has not been assigned a value is null. Attempting to call methods on that string throws a NullReferenceException. A null string is different from an empty string, which is a string whose value is "" or String.Empty. In some cases, passing either a null string or an empty string as an argument in a method call throws an exception. For example, passing a null string to the Int32.Parse method throws an ArgumentNullException, and passing an empty string throws a FormatException. In other cases, a method argument can be either a null string or an empty string. For example, if you are providing an IFormattable implementation for a class, you want to equate both a null string and an empty string with the general ("G") format specifier.

The String class includes the following two convenience methods that enable you to test whether a string is null or empty:

`IsNullOrEmpty`

Indicates whether a string is either null or is equal to String.Empty. This method eliminates the need to use the adjoining code.

if (str == null || str.Equals(String.Empty))

`IsNullOrWhiteSpace`

Indicates whether a string is null, equals String.Empty, or consists exclusively of white-space characters. This method eliminates the need to use the adjoining code.

if (str == null || str.Equals(String.Empty) || str.Trim().Equals(String.Empty))

The adjoining example uses the IsNullOrEmpty method in the IFormattable.ToString implementation of a custom Temperature class. The method supports the "G", "C", "F", and "K" format strings. If an empty format string or a format string whose value is null is passed to the method, its value is changed to the "G" format string.

public string ToString(string format, IFormatProvider provider) 
{
   if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(format)) format = "G";  
   if (provider == null) provider = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;

   switch (format.ToUpperInvariant())
   {
      // Return degrees in Celsius.    
      case "G":
      case "C":
         return temp.ToString("F2", provider) + "°C";
      // Return degrees in Fahrenheit.
      case "F": 
         return (temp * 9 / 5 + 32).ToString("F2", provider) + "°F";
      // Return degrees in Kelvin.
      case "K":   
         return (temp + 273.15).ToString();
      default:
         throw new FormatException(
               String.Format("The {0} format string is not supported.", 
                             format));
   }                                   
}

Because strings are immutable, string manipulation routines that perform repeated additions or deletions to what appears to be a single string can exact a significant performance penalty. For example, the adjoining code uses a random number generator to create a string with 1000 characters in the range 0x0001 to 0x052F. Although the code appears to use string concatenation to append a new character to the existing string named str, it actually creates a new String object for each concatenation operation.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Random rnd = new Random();

      string str = String.Empty;
      StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@".\StringFile.txt", 
                           false, Encoding.Unicode);

      for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= 1000; ctr++) {
         str += Convert.ToChar(rnd.Next(1, 0x0530)); 
         if (str.Length % 60 == 0)
            str += Environment.NewLine;          
      }                    
      sw.Write(str);
      sw.Close();
   }
}

You can use the StringBuilder class instead of the String class for operations that make multiple changes to the value of a string. Unlike instances of the String class, StringBuilder objects are mutable; when you concatenate, append, or delete substrings from a string, the operations are performed on a single string. When you have finished modifying the value of a StringBuilder object, you can call its StringBuilder.ToString method to convert it to a string. The adjoining example replaces the String used in the previous example to concatenate 1000 random characters in the range to 0x0001 to 0x052F with a StringBuilder object.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Random rnd = new Random();
      StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
      StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@".\StringFile.txt", 
                                         false, Encoding.Unicode);

      for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= 1000; ctr++) {
         sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(rnd.Next(1, 0x0530))); 
         if (sb.Length % 60 == 0)
            sb.AppendLine();          
      }                    
      sw.Write(sb.ToString());
      sw.Close();
   }
}

Members of the String class perform either ordinal or culture-sensitive (linguistic) operations on a String object. An ordinal operation acts on the numeric value of each Char object. A culture-sensitive operation acts on the value of the String object, and takes culture-specific casing, sorting, formatting, and parsing rules into account. Culture-sensitive operations execute in the context of an explicitly declared culture or the implicit current culture. The two kinds of operations can produce very different results when they are performed on the same string.

The .NET Framework also supports culture-insensitive linguistic string operations by using the invariant culture (CultureInfo.InvariantCulture), which is loosely based on the culture settings of the English language independent of region. Unlike other System.Globalization.CultureInfo settings, the settings of the invariant culture are guaranteed to remain consistent on a single computer, from system to system, and across versions of the .NET Framework. The invariant culture can be seen as a kind of black box that ensures stability of string comparisons and ordering across all cultures.

Operations for casing, parsing and formatting, comparison and sorting, and testing for equality can be either ordinal or culture-sensitive. The following sections discuss each category of operation.

Tip

You should always call a method overload that makes the intent of your method call clear. For example, instead of calling the Compare(String, String) method to perform a culture-sensitive comparison of two strings by using the conventions of the current culture, you should call the Compare(String, String, StringComparison) method with a value of StringComparison.CurrentCulture for the comparisonType argument. For more information, see Best Practices for Using Strings in the .NET Framework.

Security Note

If your application makes a security decision about a symbolic identifier such as a file name or named pipe, or about persisted data such as the text-based data in an XML file, the operation should use an ordinal comparison instead of a culture-sensitive comparison. This is because a culture-sensitive comparison can yield different results depending on the culture in effect, whereas an ordinal comparison depends solely on the binary value of the compared characters.

Important

Most methods that perform string operations include an overload that has a parameter of type StringComparison, which enables you to specify whether the method performs an ordinal or culture-sensitive operation. In general, you should call this overload to make the intent of your method call clear. For best practices and guidance for using ordinal and culture-sensitive operations on strings, see Best Practices for Using Strings in the .NET Framework.

Casing

Casing rules determine how to change the capitalization of a Unicode character; for example, from lowercase to uppercase. Often, a casing operation is performed before a string comparison. For example, a string might be converted to uppercase so that it can be compared with another uppercase string. You can convert the characters in a string to lowercase by calling the ToLower or ToLowerInvariant method, and you can convert them to uppercase by calling the ToUpper or ToUpperInvariant method. In addition, you can use the TextInfo.ToTitleCase method to convert a string to title case.

Casing operations can be based on the rules of the current culture, a specified culture, or the invariant culture. Because case mappings can vary depending on the culture used, the result of casing operations can vary based on culture. The actual differences in casing are of three types:

Type 1

Differences in the case mapping of LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I (U+0049), LATIN SMALL LETTER I (U+0069), LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE (U+0130), and LATIN SMALL LETTER DOTLESS I (U+0131). In the tr-TR (Turkish (Turkey)) and az-Latn-AZ (Azerbaijan, Latin) cultures, and in the tr, az, and az-Latn neutral cultures, the lowercase equivalent of LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I is LATIN SMALL LETTER DOTLESS I, and the uppercase equivalent of LATIN SMALL LETTER I is LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE. In all other cultures, including the invariant culture, LATIN SMALL LETTER I and LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I are lowercase and uppercase equivalents.

The adjoining example demonstrates how a string comparison designed to prevent file system access can fail if it relies on a culture-sensitive casing comparison. (The casing conventions of the invariant culture should have been used.)

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class Example
{
   const string disallowed = "file";

   public static void Main()
   {
      IsAccessAllowed(@"FILE:\\\c:\users\user001\documents\FinancialInfo.txt");
   }

   private static void IsAccessAllowed(String resource)
   {
      CultureInfo[] cultures = { CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US"),
                                 CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("tr-TR") };
      String scheme = null;
      int index = resource.IndexOfAny( new Char[] { '\\', '/' } );
      if (index > 0) 
         scheme = resource.Substring(0, index - 1);

      // Change the current culture and perform the comparison.
      foreach (var culture in cultures) {
         Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture;
         Console.WriteLine("Culture: {0}", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.DisplayName);
         Console.WriteLine(resource);
         Console.WriteLine("Access allowed: {0}", 
                           ! String.Equals(disallowed, scheme, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase));      
         Console.WriteLine();
      }   
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Culture: English (United States)
//       FILE:\\\c:\users\user001\documents\FinancialInfo.txt
//       Access allowed: False
//       
//       Culture: Turkish (Turkey)
//       FILE:\\\c:\users\user001\documents\FinancialInfo.txt
//       Access allowed: True

Type 2

Differences in case mappings between the invariant culture and all other cultures. In these cases, using the casing rules of the invariant culture to change a character to uppercase or lowercase returns the same character. For all other cultures, it returns a different character. Some of the affected characters are listed in the following table.

Case Mappings in Invariant vs. Other Cultures
Character	If Changed To	Becomes
MICRON SIGN (U+00B5)	Uppercase	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU (U+-39C)
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE (U+0130)	Lowercase	LATIN SMALL LETTER I (U+0069)
LATIN SMALL LETTER DOTLESS I (U+0131)	Uppercase	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I (U+0049)
LATIN SMALL LETTER LONG S (U+017F)	Uppercase	LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S (U+0053)
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON (U+01C5)	Lowercase	LATIN SMALL LETTER DZ WITH CARON (U+01C6)
COMBINING GREEK YPOGEGRAMMENI (U+0345)	Uppercase	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA (U+0399)

Type 3

Differences in case mappings of two-letter mixed-case pairs in the ASCII character range. In most cultures, a two-letter mixed-case pair is equal to the equivalent two-letter uppercase or lowercase pair. This is not true for the following two-letter pairs in the following cultures, because in each case they are compared to a digraph:

"lJ" and "nJ" in the hr-HR (Croatian (Croatia)) culture.
"cH" in the cs-CZ (Czech (Czech Republic)) and sk-SK (Slovak (Slovakia)) cultures.
"aA" in the da-DK (Danish (Denmark)) culture.
"cS", "dZ", "dZS", "nY", "sZ", "tY", and "zS" in the hu-HU (Hungarian (Hungary)) culture.
"cH" and "lL" in the es-ES_tradnl (Spanish (Spain, Traditional Sort)) culture.
"cH", "gI", "kH", "nG" "nH", "pH", "qU', "tH", and "tR" in the vi-VN (Vietnamese (Vietnam)) culture.

However, it is unusual to encounter a situation in which a culture-sensitive comparison of these pairs creates problems, because these pairs are uncommon in fixed strings or identifiers.

The adjoining example illustrates some of the differences in casing rules between cultures when converting strings to uppercase.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;

public class Example
{
 public static void Main()
 {
    StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@".\case.txt");   
    string[] words = { "file", "sıfır", "ǅenana" };
    CultureInfo[] cultures = { CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                               new CultureInfo("en-US"),  
                               new CultureInfo("tr-TR") };

    foreach (var word in words) {
       sw.WriteLine("{0}:", word);
       foreach (var culture in cultures) {
          string name = String.IsNullOrEmpty(culture.Name) ? 
                               "Invariant" : culture.Name;
          string upperWord = word.ToUpper(culture);
          sw.WriteLine("   {0,10}: {1,7} {2, 38}", name, 
                       upperWord, ShowHexValue(upperWord));

       }
       sw.WriteLine();  
    }
    sw.Close();
 }

 private static string ShowHexValue(string s)
 {
    string retval = null;
    foreach (var ch in s) {
       byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(ch);
       retval += String.Format("{0:X2} {1:X2} ", bytes[1], bytes[0]);     
    }
    return retval;
 } 
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    file:
//        Invariant:    FILE               00 46 00 49 00 4C 00 45 
//            en-US:    FILE               00 46 00 49 00 4C 00 45 
//            tr-TR:    FİLE               00 46 01 30 00 4C 00 45 
//    
//    sıfır:
//        Invariant:   SıFıR         00 53 01 31 00 46 01 31 00 52 
//            en-US:   SIFIR         00 53 00 49 00 46 00 49 00 52 
//            tr-TR:   SIFIR         00 53 00 49 00 46 00 49 00 52 
//    
//    ǅenana:
//        Invariant:  ǅENANA   01 C5 00 45 00 4E 00 41 00 4E 00 41 
//            en-US:  ǄENANA   01 C4 00 45 00 4E 00 41 00 4E 00 41 
//            tr-TR:  ǄENANA   01 C4 00 45 00 4E 00 41 00 4E 00 41

The adjoining example illustrates the ambiguity that can arise when interpreting a culture-specific date string. Without knowing the conventions of the culture that was used to produce a date string, it is not possible to know whether 03/01/2011, 3/1/2011, and 01/03/2011 represent January 3, 2011 or March 1, 2011.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      DateTime date = new DateTime(2011, 3, 1);
      CultureInfo[] cultures = { CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                 new CultureInfo("en-US"), 
                                 new CultureInfo("fr-FR") };

      foreach (var culture in cultures)
         Console.WriteLine("{0,-12} {1}", String.IsNullOrEmpty(culture.Name) ?
                           "Invariant" : culture.Name, 
                           date.ToString("d", culture));                                    
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Invariant    03/01/2011
//       en-US        3/1/2011
//       fr-FR        01/03/2011

Similarly, as the adjoining example shows, a single string can produce different dates depending on the culture whose conventions are used in the parsing operation.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string dateString = "07/10/2011";
      CultureInfo[] cultures = { CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                 CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-GB"), 
                                 CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US") };
      Console.WriteLine("{0,-12} {1,10} {2,8} {3,8}\n", "Date String", "Culture", 
                                                 "Month", "Day");
      foreach (var culture in cultures) {
         DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(dateString, culture);
         Console.WriteLine("{0,-12} {1,10} {2,8} {3,8}", dateString, 
                           String.IsNullOrEmpty(culture.Name) ?
                           "Invariant" : culture.Name, 
                           date.Month, date.Day);
      }                      
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Date String     Culture    Month      Day
//       
//       07/10/2011    Invariant        7       10
//       07/10/2011        en-GB       10        7
//       07/10/2011        en-US        7       10

String comparison and sorting

Conventions for comparing and sorting strings vary from culture to culture. For example, the sort order may be based on phonetics or on the visual representation of characters. In East Asian languages, characters are sorted by the stroke and radical of ideographs. Sorting also depends on the order languages and cultures use for the alphabet. For example, the Danish language has an "Æ" character that it sorts after "Z" in the alphabet. In addition, comparisons can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive, and in some cases casing rules also differ by culture. Ordinal comparison, on the other hand, uses the Unicode code points of individual characters in a string when comparing and sorting strings.

Sort rules determine the alphabetic order of Unicode characters and how two strings compare to each other. For example, the String.Compare(String, String, StringComparison) method compares two strings based on the StringComparison parameter. If the parameter value is StringComparison.CurrentCulture, the method performs a linguistic comparison that uses the conventions of the current culture; if the parameter value is StringComparison.Ordinal, the method performs an ordinal comparison. Consequently, as the following example shows, if the current culture is U.S. English, the first call to the String.Compare(String, String, StringComparison) method (using culture-sensitive comparison) considers "a" less than "A", but the second call to the same method (using ordinal comparison) considers "a" greater than "A".

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
      Console.WriteLine(String.Compare("A", "a", StringComparison.CurrentCulture));
      Console.WriteLine(String.Compare("A", "a", StringComparison.Ordinal));
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       1
//       -32

The .NET Framework supports word, string, and ordinal sort rules:

A word sort performs a culture-sensitive comparison of strings in which certain nonalphanumeric Unicode characters might have special weights assigned to them. For example, the hyphen (-) might have a very small weight assigned to it so that "coop" and "co-op" appear next to each other in a sorted list. For a list of the Stringmethods that compare two strings using word sort rules, see the String operations by category section.
A string sort also performs a culture-sensitive comparison. It is similar to a word sort, except that there are no special cases, and all nonalphanumeric symbols come before all alphanumeric Unicode characters. Two strings can be compared using string sort rules by calling the CompareInfo.Compare method overloads that have an options parameter that is supplied a value of CompareOptions.StringSort. Note that this is the only method that the .NET Framework provides to compare two strings using string sort rules.
An ordinal sort compares strings based on the numeric value of each Char object in the string. An ordinal comparison is automatically case-sensitive because the lowercase and uppercase versions of a character have different code points. However, if case is not important, you can specify an ordinal comparison that ignores case. This is equivalent to converting the string to uppercase by using the invariant culture and then performing an ordinal comparison on the result. For a list of the String methods that compare two strings using ordinal sort rules, see the String operations by category section.

A culture-sensitive comparison is any comparison that explicitly or implicitly uses a CultureInfo object, including the invariant culture that is specified by the CultureInfo.InvariantCulture property. The implicit culture is the current culture, which is specified by the Thread.CurrentCulture and CultureInfo.CurrentCulture properties. There is considerable variation in the sort order of alphabetic characters (that is, characters for which the Char.IsLetter property returns true) across cultures. You can specify a culture-sensitive comparison that uses the conventions of a specific culture by supplying a CultureInfo object to a string comparison method such as Compare(String, String, CultureInfo, CompareOptions). You can specify a culture-sensitive comparison that uses the conventions of the current culture by supplying StringComparison.CurrentCulture, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase, or any member of the CompareOptions enumeration other than CompareOptions.Ordinal or CompareOptions.OrdinalIgnoreCase to an appropriate overload of the Compare method. A culture-sensitive comparison is generally appropriate for sorting whereas an ordinal comparison is not. An ordinal comparison is generally appropriate for determining whether two strings are equal (that is, for determining identity) whereas a culture-sensitive comparison is not.

The adjoining example illustrates the difference between culture-sensitive and ordinal comparison. The example evaluates three strings, "Apple", "Æble", and "AEble", using ordinal comparison and the conventions of the da-DK and en-US cultures (each of which is the default culture at the time the Compare method is called). Because the Danish language treats the character "Æ" as an individual letter and sorts it after "Z" in the alphabet, the string "Æble" is greater than "Apple". However, "Æble" is not considered equivalent to "AEble", so "Æble" is also greater than "AEble". The en-US culture doesn't include the letter"Æ" but treats it as equivalent to "AE", which explains why "Æble" is less than "Apple" but equal to "AEble". Ordinal comparison, on the other hand, considers "Apple" to be less than "Æble", and "Æble" to be greater than "AEble".

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class CompareStringSample
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string str1 = "Apple";
      string str2 = "Æble"; 
      string str3 = "AEble";

      // Set the current culture to Danish in Denmark.
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("da-DK");
      Console.WriteLine("Current culture: {0}", 
                        CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Name);
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}", 
                        str1, str2, String.Compare(str1, str2));
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}\n", 
                        str2, str3, String.Compare(str2, str3));

      // Set the current culture to English in the U.S.
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
      Console.WriteLine("Current culture: {0}", 
                        CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Name);
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}", 
                        str1, str2, String.Compare(str1, str2));
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}\n", 
                        str2, str3, String.Compare(str2, str3));

      // Perform an ordinal comparison.
      Console.WriteLine("Ordinal comparison");
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}", 
                        str1, str2, 
                        String.Compare(str1, str2, StringComparison.Ordinal));
      Console.WriteLine("Comparison of {0} with {1}: {2}", 
                        str2, str3, 
                        String.Compare(str2, str3, StringComparison.Ordinal));
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Current culture: da-DK
//       Comparison of Apple with Æble: -1
//       Comparison of Æble with AEble: 1
//       
//       Current culture: en-US
//       Comparison of Apple with Æble: 1
//       Comparison of Æble with AEble: 0
//       
//       Ordinal comparison
//       Comparison of Apple with Æble: -133
//       Comparison of Æble with AEble: 133

Use the following general guidelines to choose an appropriate sorting or string comparison method:

If you want the strings to be ordered based on the user's culture, you should order them based on the conventions of the current culture. If the user's culture changes, the order of sorted strings will also change accordingly. For example, a thesaurus application should always sort words based on the user's culture.
If you want the strings to be ordered based on the conventions of a specific culture, you should order them by supplying a CultureInfo object that represents that culture to a comparison method. For example, in an application designed to teach students a particular language, you want strings to be ordered based on the conventions of one of the cultures that speaks that language.
If you want the order of strings to remain unchanged across cultures, you should order them based on the conventions of the invariant culture or use an ordinal comparison. For example, you would use an ordinal sort to organize the names of files, processes, mutexes, or named pipes.
For a comparison that involves a security decision (such as whether a username is valid), you should always perform an ordinal test for equality by calling an overload of the Equals method.

Note

The culture-sensitive sorting and casing rules used in string comparison depend on the version of the .NET Framework. In the .NET Framework 4.5 running on the Windows 8 operating system, sorting, casing, normalization, and Unicode character information conforms to the Unicode 6.0 standard. On other operating systems, it conforms to theUnicode 5.0 standard.

For more information about word, string, and ordinal sort rules, see the System.Globalization.CompareOptions topic. For additional recommendations on when to use each rule, see Best Practices for Using Strings in the .NET Framework.

Ordinarily, you do not call string comparison methods such as Compare directly to determine the sort order of strings. Instead, comparison methods are called by sorting methods such as Array.Sort or List.Sort. The adjoining example performs four different sorting operations (word sort using the current culture, word sort using the invariant culture, ordinal sort, and string sort using the invariant culture) without explicitly calling a string comparison method, although they do specify the type of comparison to use. Note that each type of sort produces a unique ordering of strings in its array.

Tip

Internally, the.NET Framework uses sort keys to support culturally sensitive string comparison. Each character in a string is given several categories of sort weights, including alphabetic, case, and diacritic. A sort key, represented by the SortKey class, provides a repository of these weights for a particular string. If your app performs a large number of searching or sorting operations on the same set of strings, you can improve its performance by generating and storing sort keys for all the strings that it uses. When a sort or comparison operation is required, you use the sort keys instead of the strings. For more information, see the SortKey class.

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

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string[] strings = { "coop", "co-op", "cooperative", 
                           "co\u00ADoperative", "cœur", "coeur" };

      // Perform a word sort using the current (en-US) culture.
      string[] current = new string[strings.Length]; 
      strings.CopyTo(current, 0); 
      Array.Sort(current, StringComparer.CurrentCulture);

      // Perform a word sort using the invariant culture.
      string[] invariant = new string[strings.Length];
      strings.CopyTo(invariant, 0); 
      Array.Sort(invariant, StringComparer.InvariantCulture);

      // Perform an ordinal sort.
      string[] ordinal = new string[strings.Length];
      strings.CopyTo(ordinal, 0); 
      Array.Sort(ordinal, StringComparer.Ordinal);

      // Perform a string sort using the current culture.
      string[] stringSort = new string[strings.Length];
      strings.CopyTo(stringSort, 0); 
      Array.Sort(stringSort, new SCompare());

      // Display array values
      Console.WriteLine("{0,13} {1,13} {2,15} {3,13} {4,13}\n", 
                        "Original", "Word Sort", "Invariant Word", 
                        "Ordinal Sort", "String Sort");
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr < strings.Length; ctr++)
         Console.WriteLine("{0,13} {1,13} {2,15} {3,13} {4,13}", 
                           strings[ctr], current[ctr], invariant[ctr], 
                           ordinal[ctr], stringSort[ctr] );          
   }
}

// IComparer<String> implementation to perform string sort.
internal class SCompare : IComparer<String>
{
   public int Compare(string x, string y)
   {
      return CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.CompareInfo.Compare(x, y, CompareOptions.StringSort);
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//         Original     Word Sort  Invariant Word  Ordinal Sort   String Sort
//    
//             coop          cœur            cœur         co-op         co-op
//            co-op         coeur           coeur         coeur          cœur
//      cooperative          coop            coop          coop         coeur
//     cooperative         co-op           co-op   cooperative          coop
//             cœur   cooperative     cooperative  cooperative   cooperative
//            coeur  cooperative    cooperative          cœur  cooperative

If you don't specify a string comparison convention, sorting methods such as Array.Sort(Array) perform a culture-sensitive, case-sensitive sort on strings. The following example illustrates how changing the current culture affects the order of sorted strings in an array. It creates an array of three strings. First, it sets the System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture property to en-US and calls the Array.Sort(Array) method. The resulting sort order is based on sorting conventions for the English (United States) culture. Next, the example sets the System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture property to da-DK and calls the Array.Sort method again. Notice how the resulting sort order differs from the en-US results because it uses the sorting conventions for Danish (Denmark).

Warning

If your primary purpose in comparing strings is to determine whether they are equal, you should call the String.Equals method. Typically, you should use Equals to perform an ordinal comparison. The String.Compare method is intended primarily to sort strings.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class ArraySort 
{
   public static void Main(String[] args) 
   {
      // Create and initialize a new array to store the strings.
      string[] stringArray = { "Apple", "Æble", "Zebra"};

      // Display the values of the array.
      Console.WriteLine( "The original string array:");
      PrintIndexAndValues(stringArray);

      // Set the CurrentCulture to "en-US".
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
      // Sort the values of the array.
      Array.Sort(stringArray);

      // Display the values of the array.
      Console.WriteLine("After sorting for the culture \"en-US\":");
      PrintIndexAndValues(stringArray); 

      // Set the CurrentCulture to "da-DK".
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("da-DK");
      // Sort the values of the Array.
      Array.Sort(stringArray);

      // Display the values of the array.
      Console.WriteLine("After sorting for the culture \"da-DK\":");
      PrintIndexAndValues(stringArray); 
   }
   public static void PrintIndexAndValues(string[] myArray)  
   {
      for (int i = myArray.GetLowerBound(0); i <= 
            myArray.GetUpperBound(0); i++ )
         Console.WriteLine("[{0}]: {1}", i, myArray[i]);
      Console.WriteLine();      
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       The original string array:
//       [0]: Apple
//       [1]: Æble
//       [2]: Zebra
//       
//       After sorting for the "en-US" culture:
//       [0]: Æble
//       [1]: Apple
//       [2]: Zebra
//       
//       After sorting for the culture "da-DK":
//       [0]: Apple
//       [1]: Zebra
//       [2]: Æble

String search methods, such as String.StartsWith and String.IndexOf, also can perform culture-sensitive or ordinal string comparisons. The following example illustrates the differences between ordinal and culture-sensitive comparisons using the IndexOf method. A culture-sensitive search in which the current culture is English (United States) considers the substring "oe" to match the ligature "œ". Because a soft hyphen (U+00AD) is a zero-width character, the search treats the soft hyphen as equivalent to Empty and finds a match at the beginning of the string. An ordinal search, on the other hand, does not find a match in either case.

using System;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      // Search for "oe" and "œu" in "œufs" and "oeufs".
      string s1 = "œufs";
      string s2 = "oeufs";
      FindInString(s1, "oe", StringComparison.CurrentCulture);
      FindInString(s1, "oe", StringComparison.Ordinal);
      FindInString(s2, "œu", StringComparison.CurrentCulture);
      FindInString(s2, "œu", StringComparison.Ordinal);
      Console.WriteLine();

      string s3 = "co\u00ADoperative";
      FindInString(s3, "\u00AD", StringComparison.CurrentCulture);
      FindInString(s3, "\u00AD", StringComparison.Ordinal);
   }

   private static void FindInString(string s, string substring, StringComparison options)
   {
      int result = s.IndexOf(substring, options);
      if (result != -1)
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' found in {1} at position {2}", 
                           substring, s, result);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' not found in {1}", 
                           substring, s);                                                  
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       'oe' found in œufs at position 0
//       'oe' not found in œufs
//       'œu' found in oeufs at position 0
//       'œu' not found in oeufs
//       
//       '' found in cooperative at position 0
//       '' found in cooperative at position 2

The search methods in the String class that search for an individual character, such as the IndexOf method, or one of a set of characters, such as the IndexOfAny method, all perform an ordinal search. To perform a culture-sensitive search for a character, you must call a CompareInfo method such as CompareInfo.IndexOf(String, Char) or CompareInfo.LastIndexOf(String, Char). Note that the results of searching for a character using ordinal and culture-sensitive comparison can be very different. For example, a search for a precomposed Unicode character such as the ligature "Æ" (U+00C6) might match any occurrence of its components in the correct sequence, such as "AE" (U+041U+0045), depending on the culture. The following example illustrates the difference between the String.IndexOf(Char) and CompareInfo.IndexOf(String, Char) methods when searching for an individual character. The ligature "æ" (U+00E6) is found in the string "aerial" when using the conventions of the en-US culture, but not when using the conventions of the da-DK culture or when performing an ordinal comparison.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      String[] cultureNames = { "da-DK", "en-US" };
      CompareInfo ci;
      String str = "aerial";
      Char ch = 'æ';  // U+00E6

      Console.Write("Ordinal comparison -- ");
      Console.WriteLine("Position of '{0}' in {1}: {2}", ch, str,
                        str.IndexOf(ch));

      foreach (var cultureName in cultureNames) {
         ci = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(cultureName).CompareInfo;
         Console.Write("{0} cultural comparison -- ", cultureName);
         Console.WriteLine("Position of '{0}' in {1}: {2}", ch, str,
                           ci.IndexOf(str, ch));
      }
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Ordinal comparison -- Position of 'æ' in aerial: -1
//       da-DK cultural comparison -- Position of 'æ' in aerial: -1
//       en-US cultural comparison -- Position of 'æ' in aerial: 0

On the other hand, String class methods that search for a string rather than a character perform a culture-sensitive search if search options are not explicitly specified by a parameter of type StringComparison. The sole exception is Contains, which performs an ordinal search.

Testing for equality

Use the String.Compare method to determine the relationship of two strings in the sort order. Typically, this is a culture-sensitive operation. In contrast, call the String.Equals method to test for equality. Because the test for equality usually compares user input with some known string, such as a valid user name, a password, or a file system path, it is typically an ordinal operation.

Warning

It is possible to test for equality by calling the String.Compare method and determining whether the return value is zero. However, this practice is not recommended. To determine whether two strings are equal, you should call one of the overloads of the String.Equals method. The preferred overload to call is either the instance Equals(String, StringComparison) method or the static Equals(String, String, StringComparison) method, because both methods include a System.StringComparison parameter that explicitly specifies the type of comparison.

The adjoining example illustrates the danger of performing a culture-sensitive comparison for equality when an ordinal one should be used instead. In this case, the intent of the code is to prohibit file system access from URLs that begin with "FILE://" or "file://" by performing a case-insensitive comparison of the beginning of a URL with the string "FILE://". However, if a culture-sensitive comparison is performed using the Turkish (Turkey) culture on a URL that begins with "file://", the comparison for equality fails, because the Turkish uppercase equivalent of the lowercase "i" is "İ" instead of "I". As a result, file system access is inadvertently permitted. On the other hand, if an ordinal comparison is performed, the comparison for equality succeeds, and file system access is denied.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("tr-TR");      

      string filePath = "file://c:/notes.txt";

      Console.WriteLine("Culture-sensitive test for equality:");
      if (! TestForEquality(filePath, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
         Console.WriteLine("Access to {0} is allowed.", filePath);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("Access to {0} is not allowed.", filePath);

      Console.WriteLine("\nOrdinal test for equality:");
      if (! TestForEquality(filePath, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
         Console.WriteLine("Access to {0} is allowed.", filePath);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("Access to {0} is not allowed.", filePath);
   }

   private static bool TestForEquality(string str, StringComparison cmp)
   {
      int position = str.IndexOf("://");
      if (position < 0) return false;

      string substring = str.Substring(0, position);  
      return substring.Equals("FILE", cmp);
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Culture-sensitive test for equality:
//       Access to file://c:/notes.txt is allowed.
//       
//       Ordinal test for equality:
//       Access to file://c:/notes.txt is not allowed.

Some Unicode characters have multiple representations. For example, any of the following code points can represent the letter "ắ":

U+1EAF
U+0103 U+0301
U+0061 U+0306 U+0301

Multiple representations for a single character complicate searching, sorting, matching, and other string operations.

The Unicode standard defines a process called normalization that returns one binary representation of a Unicode character for any of its equivalent binary representations. Normalization can use several algorithms, called normalization forms, that follow different rules. The .NET Framework supports Unicode normalization forms C, D, KC, and KD. When strings have been normalized to the same normalization form, they can be compared by using ordinal comparison.

An ordinal comparison is a binary comparison of the Unicode scalar value of corresponding Char objects in each string. The String class includes a number of methods that can perform an ordinal comparison, including the following:

Any overload of the Compare, Equals, StartsWith, EndsWith, IndexOf,and LastIndexOf methods that includes a StringComparison parameter. The method performs an ordinal comparison if you supply a value of StringComparison.Ordinal or OrdinalIgnoreCase for this parameter.
The overloads of the CompareOrdinal method.
Methods that use ordinal comparison by default, such as Contains, Replace, and Split.
Methods that search for a Char value or for the elements in a Char array in a string instance. Such methods include IndexOf(Char) and Split(Char[]).

You can determine whether a string is normalized to normalization form C by calling the String.IsNormalized() method, or you can call the String.IsNormalized(NormalizationForm) method to determine whether a string is normalized to a specified normalization form. You can also call the String.Normalize() method to convert a string to normalization form C, or you can call the String.Normalize(NormalizationForm) method to convert a string to a specified normalization form. For step-by-step information about normalizing and comparing strings, see the Normalize() and Normalize(NormalizationForm) methods.

The adjoining simple example illustrates string normalization. It defines the letter "ố" in three different ways in three different strings, and uses an ordinal comparison for equality to determine that each string differs from the other two strings. It then converts each string to the supported normalization forms, and again performs an ordinal comparison of each string in a specified normalization form. In each case, the second test for equality shows that the strings are equal.

For more information about normalization and normalization forms, see System.Text.NormalizationForm, as well as Unicode Standard Annex #15: Unicode Normalization Forms and the Normalization FAQ on the unicode.org website.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;

public class Example
{
   private static StreamWriter sw;

   public static void Main()
   {
      sw = new StreamWriter(@".\TestNorm1.txt");

      // Define three versions of the same word. 
      string s1 = "sống";        // create word with U+1ED1
      string s2 = "s\u00F4\u0301ng";
      string s3 = "so\u0302\u0301ng";

      TestForEquality(s1, s2, s3);      
      sw.WriteLine();

      // Normalize and compare strings using each normalization form.
      foreach (string formName in Enum.GetNames(typeof(NormalizationForm)))
      {
         sw.WriteLine("Normalization {0}:\n", formName); 
         NormalizationForm nf = (NormalizationForm) Enum.Parse(typeof(NormalizationForm), formName);
         string[] sn = NormalizeStrings(nf, s1, s2, s3);
         TestForEquality(sn);           
         sw.WriteLine("\n");                                        
      }

      sw.Close();   
   }

   private static void TestForEquality(params string[] words)
   {
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= words.Length - 2; ctr++)
         for (int ctr2 = ctr + 1; ctr2 <= words.Length - 1; ctr2++) 
            sw.WriteLine("{0} ({1}) = {2} ({3}): {4}", 
                         words[ctr], ShowBytes(words[ctr]),
                         words[ctr2], ShowBytes(words[ctr2]),
                         words[ctr].Equals(words[ctr2], StringComparison.Ordinal));
   }

   private static string ShowBytes(string str)
   {
      string result = null;
      foreach (var ch in str)
         result += String.Format("{0} ", Convert.ToUInt16(ch).ToString("X4")); 
      return result.Trim();            
   } 

   private static string[] NormalizeStrings(NormalizationForm nf, params string[] words)
   {
      for (int ctr = 0; ctr < words.Length; ctr++)
         if (! words[ctr].IsNormalized(nf))
            words[ctr] = words[ctr].Normalize(nf); 
      return words;   
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 00F4 0301 006E 0067): False
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): False
//       sống (0073 00F4 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): False
//       
//       Normalization FormC:
//       
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       
//       
//       Normalization FormD:
//       
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True
//       
//       
//       Normalization FormKC:
//       
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067) = sống (0073 1ED1 006E 0067): True
//       
//       
//       Normalization FormKD:
//       
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True
//       sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067) = sống (0073 006F 0302 0301 006E 0067): True

Equals()

String.Split()

Concat()
Combines one or more substrings into a single string.

Overloads
- Concat(IEnumerable<String>)
  Summary
  
  Concatenates the members of a constructed IEnumerable<T> collection of type String.
  
  Declaration
  
  public: [ComVisibleAttribute(false)] static String^ Concat( IEnumerable<String^>^ values )
  Parameters
  
  values
  
  Generic.IEnumerable<String>
  
  A collection object that implements IEnumerable<T> and whose generic type argument is String.
  
  values
  
  Generic.IEnumerable<String>
  
  A collection object that implements IEnumerable<T> and whose generic type argument is String.
  
  Returns
  
  String
  
  The concatenated strings in values.
  Remarks
  
  The method concatenates each object in values; it does not add any delimiters. To specify a delimiter between each member of values, call the Join(String, IEnumerable<String>) method.
  
  An Empty string is used in place of any null argument.
  
  Concat(IEnumerable<String>) is a convenience method that lets you concatenate each element in an IEnumerable(Of String) collection without first converting the elements to a string array. It is particularly useful with Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) query expressions. The following example passes a List(Of String) object that contains either the uppercase or lowercase letters of the alphabet to a lambda expression that selects letters that are equal to or greater than a particular letter (which, in the example, is "M"). The IEnumerable(Of String) collection that is returned by the Enumerable.Where<TSource> method is passed to the Concat(IEnumerable<String>) method to display the result as a single string.
  
  Example
  
  using System; using System.Collections.Generic; public class Example { public static void Main() { int maxPrime = 100; IEnumerable<String> primeList = GetPrimes(maxPrime); Console.WriteLine("Primes less than {0}:", maxPrime); Console.WriteLine(" {0}", String.Concat(primeList)); } private static IEnumerable<String> GetPrimes(int maxPrime) { Array values = Array.CreateInstance(typeof(int), new int[] { maxPrime - 1}, new int[] { 2 }); // Use Sieve of Erathsthenes to determine prime numbers. for (int ctr = values.GetLowerBound(0); ctr <= (int) Math.Ceiling(Math.Sqrt(values.GetUpperBound(0))); ctr++) { if ((int) values.GetValue(ctr) == 1) continue; for (int multiplier = ctr; multiplier <= maxPrime / 2; multiplier++) if (ctr * multiplier <= maxPrime) values.SetValue(1, ctr * multiplier); } List<String> primes = new List<String>(); for (int ctr = values.GetLowerBound(0); ctr <= values.GetUpperBound(0); ctr++) if ((int) values.GetValue(ctr) == 0) primes.Add(ctr.ToString() + " "); return primes; } } // The example displays the following output: // Primes less than 100: // 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97
  
  Using the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm to calculate the prime numbers that are less than or equal to 100
- Concat(String[])
  Summary
  
  Concatenates the elements of a specified String array.
  
  Declaration
  
  public static string Concat( params string[] values )
  Parameters
  
  values
  
  System.String[]
  
  An array of string instances.
  
  Returns
  
  System.String
  
  The concatenated elements of the values String array.
  
  Exceptions
  
  ArgumentNullException
  
  values is null.
  
  OutOfMemoryException
  
  Out of memory.
  Remarks
  
  The method concatenates each object in values; it does not add any delimiters.
  
  An Empty string is used in place of any null object in the array.
  
  Example
  
  using System; public class Example { public static void Main() { // Make an array of strings. Note that we have included spaces. string [] s = { "hello ", "and ", "welcome ", "to ", "this ", "demo! " }; // Put all the strings together. Console.WriteLine(string.Concat(s)); // Sort the strings, and put them together. Array.Sort(s); Console.WriteLine(string.Concat(s)); } } // The example displays the following output: // hello and welcome to this demo! // and demo! hello this to welcome
  
  Demonstrates the use of the Concat method with a String array.
- Concat(Object)
- Concat(Object, Object)
Join()

String.Format()

Chars[Int32]
Summary

Gets the Char object at a specified position in the current String object.
Declaration
public char this[ int index ] { get; }
Parameters
- index
  
  System.Int32
  
  A position in the current string.
Returns
- System.Char
  
  The object at position index.
Exceptions
- IndexOutOfRangeException
  
  index is greater than or equal to the length of this object or less than zero.
Remarks

The index parameter is zero-based.

This property returns the Char object at the position specified by the index parameter. However, a Unicode character might be represented by more than one Char. Use the System.Globalization.StringInfo class to work with Unicode characters instead of Char objects. For more information, see Char Objects and Unicode Characters.

In C#, the Chars property is an indexer. In Visual Basic, it is the default property of the String class. Each Char object in the string can be accessed by using code such as the following.
Examples
string str1 = "Test"; for (int ctr = 0; ctr <= str1.Length - 1; ctr++ ) Console.Write("{0} ", str1[ctr]); // The example displays the following output: // T e s t

Iterating through a string
Console.Write("Type a string : "); string myString = Console.ReadLine(); for (int i = 0; i < myString.Length; i ++) if(Uri.IsHexDigit(myString[i])) Console.WriteLine("{0} is a hexadecimal digit.", myString[i]); else Console.WriteLine("{0} is not a hexadecimal digit.", myString[i]); // The example produces output like the following: // Type a string : 3f5EaZ // 3 is a hexadecimal digit. // f is a hexadecimal digit. // 5 is a hexadecimal digit. // E is a hexadecimal digit. // a is a hexadecimal digit. // Z is not a hexadecimal digit.

E.g. Using the indexer to validate a string
Length
Summary

Gets the number of characters in the current String object.
Declaration
public int Length { get; }
Returns
- System.Int32
  
  The number of characters in the current string.
Remarks

The Length property returns the number of Char objects in this instance, not the number of Unicode characters. The reason is that a Unicode character might be represented by more than one Char. Use the System.Globalization.StringInfo class to work with each Unicode character instead of each Char.

In some languages, such as C and C++, a null character indicates the end of a string. In the .NET Framework, a null character can be embedded in a string. When a string includes one or more null characters, they are included in the length of the total string. For example, in the following string, the substrings "abc" and "def" are separated by a null character. The Length property returns 7, which indicates that it includes the six alphabetic characters as well as the null character.
Examples
using System; using System.Text; public class StringClassTest { public static void Main() { string characters = "abc\u0000def"; Console.WriteLine(characters.Length); // Displays 7 } }
using System; class Sample { public static void Main() { string str = "abcdefg"; Console.WriteLine("1) The length of '{0}' is {1}", str, str.Length); Console.WriteLine("2) The length of '{0}' is {1}", "xyz", "xyz".Length); int length = str.Length; Console.WriteLine("3) The length of '{0}' is {1}", str, length); } } // This example displays the following output: // 1) The length of 'abcdefg' is 7 // 2) The length of 'xyz' is 3 // 3) The length of 'abcdefg' is 7

String()
Initializes a new instance of the String class.

Constructors
- String(Char*)
  Summary
  
  Initializes a new instance of the String class to the value indicated by a specified pointer to an array of Unicode characters.
  
  Declaration
  
  [SecurityCriticalAttribute] [CLSCompliantAttribute(false)] public unsafe String( char* value )
  Parameters
  
  value
  
  System.Char*
  
  A pointer to a null-terminated array of Unicode characters.
  
  Exceptions
  
  ArgumentOutOfRangeException
  
  The current process does not have read access to all the addressed characters.
  
  ArgumentException
  
  value specifies an array that contains an invalid Unicode character, or value specifies an address less than 64000.
  Remarks
  
  SecurityCriticalAttribute requires full trust for the immediate caller. This member cannot be used by partially trusted or transparent code.
- String(Char*, Int32, Int32)
- String(Char, Int32)
- String(Char[])
- String(Char[], Int32, Int32)
- String(SByte*)
- String(SByte*, Int32, Int32)
- String(SByte*, Int32, Int32, Encoding)
GetEnumerator()
GetHashCode()
GetType()
GetTypeCode()
Intern()
IsInterned()
IsNullOrEmpty()
IsNullOrWhiteSpace()
Substring()
ToCharArray()
ToString()

String.Empty
Summary

Represents the empty string. This field is read-only.

Remarks

The value of this field is the zero-length string, "".

In application code, this field is most commonly used in assignments to initialize a string variable to an empty string. To test whether the value of a string is either null or String.Empty, use the IsNullOrEmpty method.
Declaration
public char this[ int index ] { get; }
Returns
- System.String

IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
Returns an enumerator that iterates through the current String object.

Overloads
- IEnumerable<Char>.GetEnumerator()
  Summary
  
  Returns an enumerator that iterates through the current String object.
  
  Declaration
  
  IEnumerator<char> IEnumerable<char>.GetEnumerator()
  Remarks
  
  This member is an explicit interface member implementation. It can be used only when the String instance is cast to an IEnumerable<T> interface object. For more information, see the GetEnumerator method.
  
  Implements IEnumerable<T>.GetEnumerator().
  
  Returns
  
  System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator<Char>
  
  A strongly-typed enumerator that can be used to iterate through the current String object.
- IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
IConvertible.ToBoolean()
IConvertible.ToByte()
IConvertible.ToChar()
...

More

Inheritance Hierarchy

Assembly

Note

Syntax

By assigning a string literal to a variable

By calling a String class constructor.

By concatenating strings

By retrieving a property or calling a method that returns a string

By calling a formatting method to convert a value or object to its string representation

Graphemes

Unicode supplementary code points

IsNullOrEmpty

IsNullOrWhiteSpace

Tip

Security Note

Important

Type 1

Type 2

Type 3

Note

Tip

Warning

Overloads

Summary

Declaration

Parameters

Returns

Remarks

Example

Summary

Declaration

Parameters

Returns

Exceptions

Remarks

Example

Summary

Declaration

Parameters

Returns

Exceptions

Remarks

Examples

Summary

Declaration

Returns

Remarks

Examples

Constructors

Summary

Declaration

Parameters

Exceptions

Remarks

Summary

Remarks

Declaration

`IsNullOrEmpty`

`IsNullOrWhiteSpace`