EXAMPLE - String Comparison Functions

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The following example demonstrates functions that can be used to compare two sets of strings. These functions include the following:

STRINGGREATERTHAN - Evaluates to true if the first string is greater than the second string. See STRINGGREATERTHAN Function.
STRINGGREATERTHANEQUAL - Evaluates to true if the first string is greater than or equal to the second string. See STRINGGREATERTHANEQUAL Function.
STRINGLESSTHAN - Evaluates to true if the first string is less than the second string. See STRINGLESSTHAN Function.
STRINGLESSTHANEQUAL - Evaluates to true if the first string is less than or equal to the second string. See STRINGLESSTHANEQUAL Function.
EXACT - Evaluates to true if the first string is an exact match with the second string. See EXACT Function.

Source:

The following table contains some example strings to be compared.

Note that in row #6, stringB begins with a space character.

Transform:

For each set of strings, the following functions are applied to generate a new column containing the results of the comparison.

derive type:single value: STRINGGREATERTHAN(stringA,stringB) as: 'greaterThan'

derive type:single value: STRINGGREATERTHANEQUAL(stringA,stringB) as: 'greaterThanEqual'

derive type:single value: STRINGLESSTHAN(stringA,stringB) as: 'lessThan'

derive type:single value: STRINGLESSTHANEQUAL(stringA,stringB) as: 'lessThanEqual'

derive type:single value: EXACT(stringA,stringB) as: 'exactEqual'

Results:

In the following table, the Notes column has been added manually.

rowId	stringA	stringB	lessThanEqual	lessThan	greaterThanEqual	greaterThan	exactEqual	Notes
`1`	`a`	`a`	`true`	`false`	`true`	`false`	`true`	Evaluation of differences between `STRINGLESSTHAN` and `STRINGGREATERTHAN` and greater than versions.
`2`	`a`	`A`	`true`	`true`	`false`	`false`	`false`	Comparisons are case-sensitive. Uppercase letters are greater than lowercase letters.
`3`	`a`	`b`	`true`	`true`	`false`	`false`	`false`	Letters later in the alphabet (b) are greater than earlier letters (a).
`4`	`a`	`1`	`false`	`false`	`true`	`true`	`false`	Letters (a) are greater than digits (1).
`5`	`a`	`;`	`false`	`false`	`true`	`true`	`false`	Letters (a) are greater than non-alphanumerics (;).
`6`	`;`	`1`	`true`	`true`	`false`	`false`	`false`	Digits (1) are greater than non-alphanumerics (;). Therefore, the following characters are listed in order of evaluation: Aa1;
`7`	`a`	`a`	`false`	`false`	`true`	`true`	`false`	Letters (and any non-breaking character) are greater than space values.
`8`	`a`	`aa`	`true`	`true`	`false`	`false`	`false`	The second string is greater, since it contains one additional string at the end.
`9`	`abc`	`x`	`true`	`true`	`false`	`false`	`false`	The second string is greater, since its first letter is greater than the first letter of the first string.