What does .NET's String.Normalize do?

Question

The MSDN article on String.Normalize states simply:

Returns a new string whose binary representation is in a particular Unicode normalization form.

Answer 1

It makes sure that unicode strings can be compared for equality (even if they are using different unicode encodings).

From Unicode Standard Annex #15:

Essentially, the Unicode Normalization Algorithm puts all combining marks in a specified order, and uses rules for decomposition and composition to transform each string into one of the Unicode Normalization Forms. A binary comparison of the transformed strings will then determine equivalence.