Question

I think I have an encoding problem that needs to be fixed.
Is there a way to compare strings across code pages?

Oracle returns a string “TEST – My String” with the minus sign encoded as ascii 63.
SQL Server quite correctly returns the string with the minus encoded as 45.

Is there a way to compare these strings?
Does the framework contain a comparison that is capable of ignoring code page mismatches.

Answer 1

Use one of the overloads of string.compare, probably:

if (string.Equals(value1, value2, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
   ...
}

More useful info here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465121.aspx