  The ground state of spin-1 Haldane chains is characterized by the so-called
string order. We show that the same hidden order is also present in ordinary
one-dimensional band insulators. We construct a family of Hamiltonians which
connects adiabatically band insulators to two topologically non-equivalent spin
models, the Haldane chain and the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 ladder. We observe
that the localized spin-1/2 edge-state characteristic of spin-1 chains is
smoothly connected to a surface-bound state of band insulators and its
emergence is not related to any bulk phase transition. Furthermore, we show
that the string order is absent in any dimensions higher than one.
