Java - Enum compareTo() method



Description

The Java 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 1

The following example shows the usage of compareTo() method for various enum values of same enum type to check a result which is greater than 0.

package com.tutorialspoint;

// enum showing topics covered under Tutorials
enum Tutorials {  
   Java, HTML, Python; 
}  
public class EnumDemo { 
   public static void main(String args[]) { 
      Tutorials t1, t2;     
      t1 = Tutorials.Java; 
      t2 = Tutorials.HTML;     
      if(t1.compareTo(t2) > 0) {
         System.out.println(t2 + " completed before " + t1); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) < 0) {
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed before " + t2); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) == 0) { 
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed with " + t2); 
      }
   } 
} 

Output

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

Java completed before HTML

Example 2

The following example shows the usage of compareTo() method for various enum values of same enum type to check a result which is same as 0.

package com.tutorialspoint;

// enum showing topics covered under Tutorials
enum Tutorials {  
   Java, HTML, Python; 
}  
public class EnumDemo { 
   public static void main(String args[]) {
 
      Tutorials t1, t2; 
    
      t1 = Tutorials.HTML; 
      t2 = Tutorials.HTML; 
    
      if(t1.compareTo(t2) > 0) {
         System.out.println(t2 + " completed before " + t1); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) < 0) {
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed before " + t2); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) == 0) { 
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed with " + t2); 
      }
   } 
} 

Output

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

HTML completed with HTML

Example 3

The following example shows the usage of compareTo() method for various enum values of same enum type to check a result which is less than 0.

package com.tutorialspoint;

// enum showing topics covered under Tutorials
enum Tutorials {  
   Java, HTML, Python; 
}  
public class EnumDemo { 
   public static void main(String args[]) {
 
      Tutorials t1, t2; 
    
      t1 = Tutorials.HTML; 
      t2 = Tutorials.Python; 
    
      if(t1.compareTo(t2) > 0) {
         System.out.println(t2 + " completed before " + t1); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) < 0) {
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed before " + t2); 
      } else if(t1.compareTo(t2) == 0) { 
         System.out.println(t1 + " completed with " + t2); 
      }
   } 
} 

Output

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

HTML completed before Python
java_lang_enum.htm
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