19. The method as claimed in claim 18 , wherein at least one bit of the representation is a data bit and wherein at least one bit of the representation is not a data bit, and wherein the data bits of the standard and complement versions of each character are the same, and wherein at least one bit of each of the standard characters differs from the corresponding bit of its complement version.
20. The method as claimed in claim 19 , wherein the full comparison compares each bit of the characters whereby the standard and the complement version of a character are considered not equivalent, and wherein the value comparison compares only the data bits of the characters whereby the standard and the complement versions of a character are considered equivalent.