StrComp Function

Applies To
Access for Microsoft 365 Access 2024 Access 2021 Access 2019 Access 2016

Returns a Variant (Integer) indicating the result of a string expression.

Syntax

StrComp⁠( ⁠string1, string2 [, compare ] ⁠)⁠

The StrComp function syntax has these arguments:

Argument Description
string1 Required. Any valid string expression.
string2 Required. Any valid string expression.
compare Optional. Specifies the type of string comparison. If the compareargument is Null, an error occurs. If compare is omitted, the Option Compare setting determines the type of comparison.

Settings

The compare argument settings are:

Constant Value Description
vbBinaryCompare 0 Performs a binary comparison.
vbTextCompare 1 Performs a textual comparison.

Return Values

The StrComp function has the following return values:

If StrComp returns
string1 is less than string2 -1
string1 is equal to string2 0
string1 is greater than string2 1
string1 or string2 is Null Null

Query example

Expression Results
SELECT ProductSales.ProductID, StrComp(ProductID,"PRO_XYZ10") AS ComparisonResult FROM ProductSales; Returns the values from the field "ProductID", compares the values in "ProductID" with "PRO_XYZ1" and returns the results in column ComparisonResult. "ProductID" is equal to "PRO_XYZ10", the StrComp function will return 0. If "ProductID" is less than "PRO_XYZ10", the StrComp function will return -1. If "ProductID" is greater than "PRO_XYZ10", the StrComp function will return 1. If either "ProductID" or "PRO_XYZ10" is NULL, the StrComp function will return NULL.

VBA example

Note

Examples that follow demonstrate the use of this function in a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) module.

This example uses the StrComp function to return the results of a string comparison. If the third argument is 1, a textual comparison is performed; if the third argument is 0 or omitted, a binary comparison is performed.


Dim MyStr1, MyStr2, MyComp
MyStr1 = "ABCD": MyStr2 = "abcd"    ' Define variables.
MyComp = StrComp(MyStr1, MyStr2, 1)    ' Returns 0.
MyComp = StrComp(MyStr1, MyStr2, 0)    ' Returns -1.
MyComp = StrComp(MyStr2, MyStr1)    ' Returns 1.

See Also

String functions and how to use them