Java - Comparator (compare) and Comparable (compareTo)

Using Comparator, we can have n number of comparison logic written for a class.

E.g.

For a Car Class

We can have a Comparator class to compare based on car model number. We can also have a Comparator class to compare based on car model year.

Car Class

public class Car  {

    int modelNo;

    int modelYear;

    public int getModelNo() {
        return modelNo;
    }

    public void setModelNo(int modelNo) {
        this.modelNo = modelNo;
    }

    public int getModelYear() {
        return modelYear;
    }

    public void setModelYear(int modelYear) {
        this.modelYear = modelYear;
    }

}

Comparator #1 based on Model No

public class CarModelNoCompartor implements Comparator<Car>{

    public int compare(Car o1, Car o2) {

        return o1.getModelNo() - o2.getModelNo();
    }

}

Comparator #2 based on Model Year

public class CarModelYearComparator implements Comparator<Car> {

    public int compare(Car o1, Car o2) {

        return o1.getModelYear() - o2.getModelYear();
    }

}

But this is not possible with the case of Comparable interface.

In case of Comparable interface, we can have only one logic in compareTo() method.