17 Comparing Objects
After reading lesson 17, you will be able to:
- Understand the difference between comparing objects vs. primitive data types
- Compare objects for equality
- Use the Comparable interface and override the compareTo method to compare objects
When comparing primitive data types such as numbers, Java uses the mathematical symbols that we are all familiar with: >, >=, ==, <, <=. Java also includes an exclamation point to negate any comparison. But these symbols alone do not help us compare objects. Instead, we need to define methods that provide comparisons such as equals, less than, and greater than. In this lesson, you will learn how to compare objects.