Java String compareTo()

The compareTo() method compares two strings lexicographically (in the dictionary order). The comparison is based on the Unicode value of each character in the strings.

Example

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str1 = "Learn Java";
    String str2 = "Learn Kolin";
    int result;

    // comparing str1 with str2
result = str1.compareTo(str2);
System.out.println(result); } } // Output: -1

Syntax of compareTo()

The syntax of the compareTo() method is:

string.compareTo(String str)

Here, string is an object of the String class.


compareTo() Parameters

The compareTo() method takes a single parameter.

  • str - the string to be compared

compareTo() Return Value

  • returns 0 if the strings are equal
  • returns a negative integer if the string comes before the str argument in the dictionary order
  • returns a positive integer if the string comes after the str argument in the dictionary order

Example: Java String compareTo()

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str1 = "Learn Java";
    String str2 = "Learn Java";
    String str3 = "Learn Kolin";
    int result;

    // comparing str1 with str2
result = str1.compareTo(str2);
System.out.println(result); // 0 // comparing str1 with str3
result = str1.compareTo(str3);
System.out.println(result); // -1 // comparing str3 with str1
result = str3.compareTo(str1);
System.out.println(result); // 1 } }

Here,

  • str1 and str2 are equal. Hence, str1.compareTo(str2) returns 0.
  • str1 comes before str3 in the dictionary order. Hence, str1.compareTo(str3) returns negative, and str3.compareTo(str1) returns positive.

Example 2: Check if Two Strings are Equal

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str1 = "Learn Python";
    String str2 = "Learn Java";
        
    // if str1 and str2 are equal, the result is 0
if (str1.compareTo(str2) == 0) {
System.out.println("str1 and str2 are equal"); } else { System.out.println("str1 and str2 are not equal"); } } }

Output

str1 and str2 are not equal

Example 3: compareTo() With Case

The compareTo() method takes the letter case (uppercase and lowercase) into consideration.

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str1 = "Learn Java";
    String str2 = "learn Java";
    int result;

    // comparing str1 with str2
result = str1.compareTo(str2);
System.out.println(result); // -32 } }

When "Learn Java" is compared to "learn Java", we do not get 0. It is because compareTo() takes the letter case into consideration.

Notes:

  • If you need to compare two strings ignoring case differences, use the Java String compareToIgnoreCase() method.
  • If you pass null to the compareTo() method, you will get an error.

Related Tutorial: Java String equals()

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