CharBuffer compareTo() method in Java

A buffer can be compared with another buffer using the method compareTo() in the class java.nio.CharBuffer. This method returns a negative integer if the buffer is less than the given buffer, zero if the buffer is equal to the given buffer and a positive integer if the buffer is greater than the given buffer.

A program that demonstrates this is given as follows −

Example

 Live Demo

import java.nio.*;
import java.util.*;
public class Demo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
   int n = 5;
   try {
      CharBuffer buffer1 = CharBuffer.allocate(n);
      buffer1.put('A');
      buffer1.put('P');
      buffer1.put('P');
      buffer1.put('L');
      buffer1.put('E');
      buffer1.rewind();
      System.out.println("The first CharBuffer is: " + Arrays.toString(buffer1.array()));
      CharBuffer buffer2 = CharBuffer.allocate(n);
      buffer2.put('A');
      buffer2.put('P');
      buffer2.put('P');
      buffer2.put('L');
      buffer2.put('E');
      buffer2.rewind();
      System.out.println("The second CharBuffer is: " + Arrays.toString(buffer2.array()));
      int val = buffer1.compareTo(buffer2);
      if (val == 0)
         System.out.println("\nBoth the buffers are lexicographically equal");
      else if (val > 0)
         System.out.println("\nThe first buffer is lexicographically greater than the second buffer");
      else
         System.out.println("\nThe second buffer is lexicographically greater than the first buffer");
      } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
         System.out.println("Error!!! IllegalArgumentException");
      } catch (ReadOnlyBufferException e) {
         System.out.println("Error!!! ReadOnlyBufferException");
      }
   }
}

Output

The first CharBuffer is: [A, P, P, L, E]
The second CharBuffer is: [A, P, P, L, E]
Both the buffers are lexicographically equal