If this is not a bug, can anyone then explain the reason behind this behavior? Indeed it seems that every odd number of letters will return false:
string test = "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa";
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaaaa"));
yields following output when executed on a Danish system:
True
False
True
False
True
False
This is certainly due to your current culture.
You may be in Danish in which aa is considered a letter.
If you try changing the culture.. or the case, it shall work.
I think I remember similar behaviour with hungarian cultures and letter associations
Have a look to String StartsWith() issue with Danish text
Example:
using System;
using System.Globalization;
namespace Demo
{
public static class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("da-DK");
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture;
string test = "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa";
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaaa"));
Console.WriteLine(test.StartsWith("aaaaaaa"));
}
}
}
This prints what the OP claims.