compareTo()方法返回值 String java

前言:今天浏览网页时看见有人对String类的compareTo()方法的返回值感到疑惑不解,所以我写了这篇文章,希望能帮助这些有疑惑的人. 

compareTo()的返回值是整型,它是先比较对应字符的大小(ASCII码顺序),如果第一个字符和参数的第一个字符不等,结束比较,返回他们之间的差值,如果第一个字符和参数的第一个字符相等,则以第二个字符和参数的第二个字符做比较,以此类推,直至比较的字符或被比较的字符有一方全比较完,这时就比较字符的长度. 


例: 
String s1 = "abc"; 
String s2 = "abcd"; 
String s3 = "abcdfg"; 
String s4 = "1bcdfg"; 
String s5 = "cdfg"; 
System.out.println( s1.compareTo(s2) ); // -1 (前面相等,s1长度小1) 
System.out.println( s1.compareTo(s3) ); // -3 (前面相等,s1长度小3) 
System.out.println( s1.compareTo(s4) ); // 48 ("a"的ASCII码是97,"1"的的ASCII码是49,所以返回48) 
System.out.println( s1.compareTo(s5) ); // -2 ("a"的ASCII码是97,"c"的ASCII码是99,所以返回-2)

 

 

  /**
     * Compares two strings lexicographically.
     * The comparison is based on the Unicode value of each character in
     * the strings. The character sequence represented by this
     * <code>String</code> object is compared lexicographically to the
     * character sequence represented by the argument string. The result is
     * a negative integer if this <code>String</code> object
     * lexicographically precedes the argument string. The result is a
     * positive integer if this <code>String</code> object lexicographically
     * follows the argument string. The result is zero if the strings
     * are equal; <code>compareTo</code> returns <code>0</code> exactly when
     * the {@link #equals(Object)} method would return <code>true</code>.
     * <p>
     * This is the definition of lexicographic ordering. If two strings are
     * different, then either they have different characters at some index
     * that is a valid index for both strings, or their lengths are different,
     * or both. If they have different characters at one or more index
     * positions, let <i>k</i> be the smallest such index; then the string
     * whose character at position <i>k</i> has the smaller value, as
     * determined by using the &lt; operator, lexicographically precedes the
     * other string. In this case, <code>compareTo</code> returns the
     * difference of the two character values at position <code>k</code> in
     * the two string -- that is, the value:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     * this.charAt(k)-anotherString.charAt(k)
     * </pre></blockquote>
     * If there is no index position at which they differ, then the shorter
     * string lexicographically precedes the longer string. In this case,
     * <code>compareTo</code> returns the difference of the lengths of the
     * strings -- that is, the value:
     * <blockquote><pre>
     * this.length()-anotherString.length()
     * </pre></blockquote>
     *
     * @param   anotherString   the <code>String</code> to be compared.
     * @return  the value <code>0</code> if the argument string is equal to
     *          this string; a value less than <code>0</code> if this string
     *          is lexicographically less than the string argument; and a
     *          value greater than <code>0</code> if this string is
     *          lexicographically greater than the string argument.
     */
    public int compareTo(String anotherString) {
        int len1 = value.length;
        int len2 = anotherString.value.length;
        int lim = Math.min(len1, len2);
        char v1[] = value;
        char v2[] = anotherString.value;

        int k = 0;
        while (k < lim) {
            char c1 = v1[k];
            char c2 = v2[k];
            if (c1 != c2) {
                return c1 - c2;
            }
            k++;
        }
        return len1 - len2;
    }