| "bugbear" | .compareTo | ("Bugbear") | positive |
| "rugrat" | .compareTo | ("rugRat") | positive |
| "ant" | .compareTo | ("turtle") | negative |
| "toadstool" | .compareTo | ("total") | negative |
| "ABCDEFG" | .compareTo | ("ABcD") | negative |
| "roadrunner" | .compareTo | ("roadkill") | positive |
Here are all the rules for comparing strings:
Rule 1: If
A.compareTo(B) == 0, thenAandBare the same length (counting all characters, including blanks and punctuation) and each character inAis identical (including case) to the character inBat the same location.
Rule 2: Otherwise, if string
Ais a prefix of stringB, thenA.compareTo(B) < 0. IfBis a prefix of stringA, thenA.compareTo(B) > 0.
Rule 3: Otherwise, find the first differing pair of characters in the strings
AandB. Call themAcharandBchar. ThenA.compareTo(B)is negative ifAcharcomes beforeBcharin the alphabet used by Java (and otherwise is positive).
The rules about what character comes first in the alphabet depend on what country you are in. This is one of the aspects of internationalization, which is the subject of customizing programs for use in different countries. Lets not worry about that.
Of course, you would like to practice this: