CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
Performs a comparison of two strings ignoring any whitespace characters including form feeds, line feeds, carriage returns, tabs, vertical tabs, and spaces. Comparison is case sensitive unless a third argument of "false" is passed in.

Return Values:
Returns a boolean.

Example:

<cfset str1 = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.">
<cfset str2 = "The quick brown     fox jumps over the lazy     dog.">
<cfset strChange = CompareIgnoreWhiteSpace(str1,str2)>
<cfif strChange eq 0>
    The strings are equal!
<cfelse>
    The strings are NOT equal!
</cfif>

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

/**
 * Performs a comparison of two strings ignoring any whitespace characters.
 * 
 * @param string1      First string to compare. (Required)
 * @param string2      Second string to compare. (Required)
 * @param isCompareCaseSensitive      Determines if the comparison should check case. Default is true. (Optional)
 * @return Returns a boolean. 
 * @author Mark G. Smith (mark.g.smith@baesystems.com) 
 * @version 1, December 2, 2008 
 */
function CompareIgnoreWhiteSpace(string1,string2) {
    var string1NoWhiteSpace = REReplace(string1,"[\s]","","ALL");
    var string2NoWhiteSpace = REReplace(string2,"[\s]","","ALL");
    var isCompareCaseSensitive = true;
    
    if(arrayLen(arguments) gte 3) isCompareCaseSensitive = arguments[3];
    
    if (isCompareCaseSensitive)
        return Compare(string1NoWhiteSpace, string2NoWhiteSpace);
    else
        return CompareNoCase(string1NoWhiteSpace, string2NoWhiteSpace);
}