Java.math.BigInteger.compareTo() Method

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Description

The java.math.BigInteger.compareTo(BigInteger val) compares this BigInteger with the specified BigInteger. This method is provided in preference to individual methods for each of the six boolean comparison operators (<, ==, >, >=, !=, <=).

The suggested idiom for performing these comparisons is: (x.compareTo(y) <op> 0), where <op> is one of the six comparison operators.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.math.BigInteger.compareTo() method.

public int compareTo(BigInteger val)

Specified by

compareTo in interface Comparable<BigInteger>.

Parameters

val − BigInteger to which this BigInteger is to be compared.

Return Value

This method returns -1, 0 or 1 as this BigInteger is numerically less than, equal to, or greater than val.

Exception

NA

Example

The following example shows the usage of math.BigInteger.compareTo() method.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.math.*;

public class BigIntegerDemo {

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // create 2 BigInteger objects
      BigInteger bi1, bi2;

      bi1 = new BigInteger("6");
      bi2 = new BigInteger("3");

      // create int object
      int res;

      // compare bi1 with bi2
      res = bi1.compareTo(bi2);

      String str1 = "Both values are equal ";
      String str2 = "First Value is greater ";
      String str3 = "Second value is greater";

      if( res == 0 )
      System.out.println( str1 );
      else if( res == 1 )
      System.out.println( str2 );
      else if( res == -1 )
      System.out.println( str3 );
   }
}

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

First Value is greater