Java - String compareTo() Method

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Description:

There are two variants of this method. First method compares this String to another Object and second method compares two strings lexicographically.

Syntax:

Here is the syntax of this method:

int compareTo(Object o)

or

int compareTo(String anotherString)

Parameters:

Here is the detail of parameters:

• o -- the Object to be compared.

• anotherString -- the String to be compared.

Return Value :

• The value 0 if the argument is a string lexicographically equal to this string; a value less than 0 if the argument is a string lexicographically greater than this string; and a value greater than 0 if the argument is a string lexicographically less than this string.

Example:

public class Test {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      String str1 = "Strings are immutable";
	  String str2 = "Strings are immutable";
      String str3 = "Integers are not immutable";

      int result = str1.compareTo( str2 );
      System.out.println(result);
	  
      result = str2.compareTo( str3 );
      System.out.println(result);
	 
      result = str3.compareTo( str1 );
      System.out.println(result);
   }
}

This produces the following result:

0
10
-10

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