.compareTo()

Compares two strings lexicographically based on the Unicode value of each character in the string.

A value of 0 will be returned if equal to comparison, less than 0 if the string is lexicographically less, and greater than 0 if the string is lexicographically greater.

string.compareTo(String str)

• str (required): A string value, the other string to compare to.

Note: Use .compareToIgnoreCase() if you want to compare lexicographically, while not comparing the upper and lower case differences. Use .equals() if you want to compare strings without taking into account Unicode values.

Compare "Codecademy" to "Codecademy":

class CompareStringsLexicographically {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String word1 = "Codecademy";
    String word2 = "Codecademy";

    System.out.println(word1.compareTo(word2));
    // Output: 0
  }
}

Compare "Codecademy" to "codecademy":

class CompareStringsLexicographically {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String word1 = "Codecademy";
    String word2 = "codecademy";

    System.out.println(word1.compareTo(word2));
    // Output: -32
  }
}

Compare "codecademy" to "Codecademy":

class CompareLexicographically {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String word1 = "codecademy";
    String word2 = "Codecademy";

    System.out.println(word1.compareTo(word2));
    // Output: 32
  }
}