Index function

[Raknarg]

Is there a string indexing function in VB like there is in Turing?

[Nick]

string.IndexOf ("pattern")

[2goto1]

There are quite a few more things you can with strings, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.aspx

[Raknarg]

Ok then, one more question: What value does String.Compare return if the string isn't inside the other string? I tried 0, but it doesn't seem to work.

[2goto1]

Compare returns an integer that indicates their relative position in the sort order, as mentioned at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/84787k22.aspx

It tells you the alphabetical ordering of two strings. Here are some test cases that you can try:

code:

String.Compare("A", "B")

Returns -1 since A is alphabetically before B

code:

String.Compare("a", "B")

Returns -1 since a is alphabetically before B

code:

String.Compare("B", "A")

Returns 1 since B is alphabetically after A

code:

String.Compare("B", "B")

Returns 0 since B is alphabetically the same as B

Here?s where it can get confusing:

code:

String.Compare("B", "b")

Returns 1 since although B is alphabetically the same as b, B?s character code is less than b

code:

String.Compare("b", "B")

Returns -1 since although b is alphabetically the same as B, b?s character code is greater than B

The API seems to differ once you start comparing the same letter, but different case. If your intent is to determine that b is alphabetically the same as B, then your best bet is to use this method:

code:

String.Compare("b", "B", true)

Returns 0 - equivalent ignoring case

Where true means to ignore case.

The same thing applies when comparing longer strings, i.e.:

code:

String.Compare("Apple", "Apricot", true)

Returns -1 since apple is alphabetically before Apricot

code:

String.Compare("Apricot", "Apple", true)

Returns 1 since apricot is alphabetically before apple

[Raknarg]

Oh, thanks, I was using it wrong.