Comparable<T> Interface

An interface consists of constants and method declarations. The Comparable<T> interface consists of just one method (and no constants):

int compareTo( T obj )                        

Compare the object running the method with obj, which is of type T. Return a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer, when he object running the method is less than, equal, or greater than obj.

T stands for the type of the objects. If the objects are Strings, then T is String. Strings implement the Comparable<String> interface.

If an object is of a class that implements Comparable, then that object is less than, equal, or greater than any object of that class. compareTo() returns an integer to show which of these three relations hold.

	Relation		objectA.compareTo( objectB )
objectA	Less Than	objectB	Negative Integer
objectA	Equal	objectB	Zero
objectA	Greater Than	objectB	Positive Integer