### IText versus IString

Earlier releases of IBM Open Class relied more on IString than on IText, which is designed to replace it. Nevertheless, IString remains useful for certain functions, such as numeric formatting and parsing, case conversion, language-sensitive or case-insensitive searching, iterative find and replace, and space padding. While IText is usually a better choice, the differences are summarized here:

Use IText:

- if you need to store styled text
- if you want to store international (non-ASCII) text
- if you want powerful language-sensitive comparison
- if you want to store really long runs of text

Note that IText has:

- no numeric support
- ties to the IOC Localization and 2DGraphics Frameworks

Use IString:

- if you need numeric formatting and parsing
- if the object is going to be used with a lot of char*-based system calls, which would force IText to create unnecessary overhead by transcoding repeatedly

Note that IString:

- uses styles via changing fonts
- is used by User Interface Classes