java - What does the String classes compareTo() method return

Question

In the Java API on oracles website: "compareTo Returns: "the value 0 if the argument string is equal to this string; a value less than 0 if this string is lexicographically less than the string argument; and a value greater than 0 if this string is lexicographically greater than the string argument." "

Here is an if statement:

String a = "abd";
String b = "abc";

if(a.compareTo(b) >= 1)

returns true since string a is greater, lexicographically.

My question is, does the compareTo always return a 0, 1, or -1? or does it return the actual amount that the string is greater than or less than the string argument.

So in the above if statement, since "abd" is one greater than "abc" is it returning 1?

Answer 1

As far as you're concerned, there's no telling what the magnitude of the compareTo return value is, just the sign. In practice, most compareTo implementations will return -1, 0, or 1, but the contract specifically says positive or negative, and you should write your code accordingly (e.g., using int compare = a.compareTo(b); if(compare > 0) {...} else...).