Java.lang.Enum.compareTo() Method

Description

The java.lang.Enum.compareTo() method compares this enum with the specified object for order.Enum constants are only comparable to other enum constants of the same enum type.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.lang.Enum.compareTo() method

public final int compareTo(E o)

Parameters

o − This is the object to be compared.

Return Value

This method returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the specified object.

Exception

NA

Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Enum.compareTo() method.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.lang.*;

// enum showing topics covered under Tutorials
enum Tutorials {  
   topic1, topic2, topic3; 
} 
 
public class EnumDemo { 

   public static void main(String args[]) {
 
      Tutorials t1, t2, t3; 
    
      t1 = Tutorials.topic1; 
      t2 = Tutorials.topic2; 
      t3 = Tutorials.topic3; 
    
      if(t1.compareTo(t2) > 0) {
         System.out.println(t2 + " completed before " + t1); 
      }
    
      if(t1.compareTo(t2) < 0) {
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed before " + t2); 
      }

      if(t1.compareTo(t3) == 0) { 
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed with " + t3); 
      }
   } 
} 

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

topic1 completed before topic2