There are two variant 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 following result:
0
10
-10