c# - String comparison in .Net: "+" vs "-"

Question

I always assumed that .Net compares strings lexicographically, according to the current culture. But there is something strange when one of the strings ends on '-':

"+".CompareTo("-")
Returns: 1

"+1".CompareTo("-1")
Returns: -1

I get it an all cultures I tried, including the invariant one. Can anyone explain what is going on, and how can I get the consistent character-by-character ordering for the current locale?

Answer 1

Try changing this to

string.Compare("+", "-", StringComparison.Ordinal); // == -2
string.Compare("+1", "-1", StringComparison.Ordinal); // == -2