NSStringCompareMBS(s as string, t as string, options as Integer) as Integer

// constants for the function:
const NSCaseInsensitiveSearch = 1
const NSLiteralSearch = 2
const NSBackwardsSearch = 4
const NSAnchoredSearch = 8
const NSNumericSearch = 64
const NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch = 128
const NSWidthInsensitiveSearch = 256
const NSForcedOrderingSearch = 512

const NSOrderedAscending = -1
const NSOrderedSame = 0
const NSOrderedDescending = 1

if NSStringCompareMBS("Hello","hello", NSCaseInsensitiveSearch)=0 then
  msgbox "equal (correct)"
else
  msgbox "not equal"
end if

if NSStringCompareMBS("Hello","hello", 0)=0 then
  msgbox "equal"
else
  msgbox "not equal (correct)"
end if

if NSStringCompareMBS("Hello","Hellö", NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch)=0 then
  msgbox "equal (correct)"
else
  msgbox "not equal"
end if

Following constants can be used for the compare:

NSCaseInsensitiveSearch	1	Case Insensitive
NSLiteralSearch	2	Exact character-by-character equivalence
NSBackwardsSearch	4	Search from end of source string
NSAnchoredSearch	8	Search is limited to start (or end, if NSBackwardsSearch) of source string
NSNumericSearch	64	Added in 10.2; Numbers within strings are compared using numeric value, that is, Foo2.txt < Foo7.txt < Foo25.txt; only applies to compare methods, not find
NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch	128	If specified, ignores diacritics (o-umlaut = o)
NSWidthInsensitiveSearch	256	If specified, ignores width differences ('a' = UFF41)
NSForcedOrderingSearch	512	If specified, comparisons are forced to return either NSOrderedAscending or NSOrderedDescending if the strings are equivalent but not strictly equal, for stability when sorting (e.g. "aaa" > "AAA" with NSCaseInsensitiveSearch specified)

The constants NSDiacriticInsensitiveSearch, NSWidthInsensitiveSearch and NSForcedOrderingSearch are only for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer versions.

Returns value constants:

NSOrderedAscending	-1
NSOrderedSame	0
NSOrderedDescending	1

Some examples using this global method:

• /MacControls/Listbox and TableView Demos/ListboxTV drop-in/Flat Only/ListBoxTV TableView
• /MacControls/Listbox and TableView Demos/ListboxTV drop-in/Hierarchical & Flat/ListBoxTV OutlineView

Blog Entries

• MonkeyBread Software Releases the MBS REALbasic plug-ins 8.6