C# String Operator Overloading

Question

G\'Day Mates -

What is the right way (excluding the argument of whether it is advisable) to overload the string operators <, >, <= and >= ?

I\'ve trie

Answer 1

String is a sealed class. You cannot inherit from it, and without the original source for String, you cannot compile a partial class of it. Even if you got your hands on the source (it's possible via Reflector or via Visual Studio symbol download) you'd still have problems, since it's a first class citizen in the runtime.

Do you really need < and > as operators on string? If so... why not just use extension methods?

public static bool IsLessThan(this string a, string b) 
{ 
    return a.CompareTo(b) < 0; 
} 

public static bool IsGreaterThan(this string a, string b) 
{ 
    return a.CompareTo(b) > 0; 
}


// elsewhere...
foo.IsLessThan(bar); // equivalent to foo < bar