C# decimal.compare vs. > or <

Question

What would be the benefit of using decimal.compare vs. just using a > or < to compare to variables?

Answer 1

For one thing it makes it really easier to build a Comparison<decimal> delegate instance:

Comparison<decimal> foo = decimal.Compare;

This is handy to pass into things which take arbitrary comparison delegates.

It may also be useful if you're using a language which doesn't support overloaded operators. That's the reason it's recommended that you don't expose functionality which is only supported by operators.

Answer 2

Decimal.Compare returns a signed number indicating the relative values of two decimal values. A typical use of this is for sorting.

Operators such as >, >=, < return a boolean.

So they're used in difference scenarios.

Answer 3

In the CLI, decimal is not a native type like Int32, String, and others are. I am guessing that C# uses Compare behind the scenes to implement the comparison operators.

Also, you can pass Compare as a parameter to a sort routine without creating a delegate, reducing the method-nesting levels inside the sort.

That’s a couple of things off the top of my head.