title: String Comparison or Parse to Int?
body: <p>I'll keep this one short. I'm writing a module which will be required to compare two large integers which are input as strings (note: they are large, but not large enough to exceed Int64 bounds). </p>
  
  <p>The strings are padded, so the choice is between taking the extra-step to converting them to their integer equivalent or comparing them as strings.</p>
  
  <p>What I'm doing is converting each of them to Int64 and comparing them that way. However, I believe that string comparisons would also work. Seeing as I'd like it to be as efficient as possible, what are you're opinions on comparison of integers via :</p>
  
  <pre><code>string integer1 = "123";
  string integer2 = "456";
  
  if (Int64.Parse(integer1) &lt;= Int64.Parse(integer2))
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>OR</p>
  
  <pre><code>string integer1 = "123";
  string integer2 = "456";
  
  if (integer1.CompareTo(integer2) &lt; 0)
  </code></pre>