Java Generics and Collections

Chapter 3. Comparison and Bounds

Now that we have the basics, let’s look at some more advanced uses of generics. This chapter describes the interfaces Comparable<T> and Comparator<T>, which are used to support comparison on elements. These interfaces are useful, for instance, if you want to find the maximum element of a collection or sort a list. Along the way, we will introduce bounds on type variables, an important feature of generics that is particularly useful in combination with the Comparable<T> interface.

Comparable

The interface Comparable<T> contains a method that can be used to compare one object to another:

interface Comparable<T> {
  public int compareTo(T o);
}

The compareTo method returns a value that is negative, zero, or positive depending upon whether the argument is less than, equal to, or greater than the given object. When a class implements Comparable, the ordering specified by this interface is called the natural ordering for that class.

Typically, an object belonging to a class can only be compared with an object belonging to the same class. For instance, Integer implements Comparable<Integer>:

Integer int0 = 0;
Integer int1 = 1;
assert int0.compareTo(int1) < 0;

The comparison returns a negative number, since 0 precedes 1 under numerical ordering. Similarly, String implements Comparable<String>:

String str0 = "zero";
String str1 = "one";
assert str0.compareTo(str1) > 0;

This comparison returns a positive number, since "zero" follows "one" under alphabetic ordering.