• Article

BigInteger.Compare Method

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Compares two BigInteger values and returns an integer that indicates whether the first value is less than, equal to, or greater than the second value.

Namespace:  System.Numerics
Assembly:  System.Numerics (in System.Numerics.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public Shared Function Compare ( _
    left As BigInteger, _
    right As BigInteger _
) As Integer

public static int Compare(
    BigInteger left,
    BigInteger right
)

Parameters

Return Value

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

Value

Condition

Less than zero

left is less than right.

Zero

left equals right.

Greater than zero

left is greater than right.

Remarks

Although the BigInteger type has no fixed range, comparisons of BigInteger values are not characterized by the lack of precision that characterizes the comparison of floating-point numbers. The following example compares two BigInteger values that differ by one and that each have 1,896 digits. The Compare method correctly reports that the two values are not equal.

Dim number1 As BigInteger = BigInteger.Pow(Int64.MaxValue, 100)
Dim number2 As BigInteger = number1 + 1
Dim relation As String = ""
Select Case BigInteger.Compare(number1, number2)
   Case -1
      relation = "<"
   Case 0
      relation = "="
   Case 1
      relation = ">"
End Select
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0} {1} {2}", number1, relation, number2) & vbCrLf
' The example displays the following output:
'    3.0829940252776347122742186219E+1896 < 3.0829940252776347122742186219E+1896

BigInteger number1 = BigInteger.Pow(Int64.MaxValue, 100);
BigInteger number2 = number1 + 1;
string relation = "";
switch (BigInteger.Compare(number1, number2))
{
   case -1:
      relation = "<";
      break;
   case 0:
      relation = "=";
      break;
   case 1:
      relation = ">";
      break;
}
outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0} {1} {2}", number1, relation, number2) + "\n";
// The example displays the following output:
//    3.0829940252776347122742186219E+1896 < 3.0829940252776347122742186219E+1896

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.