A. Locales and Case-Insensitive String Comparisons

Item 35 explains how to use mismatch and lexicographical_compare to implement case-insensitive string comparisons, but it also points out that a truly general solution to the problem must take locales into account. This book is about the STL, not internationalization, so I have next to nothing to say about locales. However, Matt Austern, author of Generic Programming and the STL [4], addressed the locale aspects of case-insensitive string comparison in a column in the May 2000 C++ Report [11]. In the interest of telling the whole story on this important topic, I am pleased to reprint his column here, and I am grateful to Matt and to 101communications for granting me permission to do so.