compare

The compare() function is used to compare two strings, and to decide whether they are equal, or if not, which one sorts before the other.

For example, under most collations «compare("ALPHA", "BETA") » returns -1 .

Argument	Data Type	Meaning
value-1	xs:string?	The first string to be compared
value-2	xs:string?	The second string to be compared
collation (optional)	xs:string	The collation to be used to perform the comparison
Result	xs:integer?	-1 if value-1 is less than value-2 , zero if they are equal, +1 if value-1 is greater than value-2