Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Solution #2
Use the
Float class compare()
method to perform the comparison. The fol-
lowing example demonstrates the use of the
Float.compare(float, float)
method.
System.out.println(Float.compare(float1, float3)); //
Result: -1
System.out.println(Float.compare(float2, float3)); //
Result: -1
System.out.println(Float.compare(float1, float1)); //
Result: 0
System.out.println(Float.compare(float3, float2)); //
Result: 1
How It Works
The most useful way to compare two float objects is to use the
compareTo()
meth-
od. This method will perform a numeric comparison against the given float objects.
The result will be an integer value indicating whether the first float is numerically
greater than, equal to, or less than the float that it is compared against. If a float value is
NaN
, it is considered to be equal to other
NaN
values or greater than all other float val-
ues. Also, a float value of
0.0f
is greater than a float value of
-0.0f
.
An alternative to using
compareTo()
is the
compare()
method, which is also
native to the
Float
class. The
compare()
method was introduced in Java 1.4, and it
is a static method that compares two float values in the same manner as
com-
pareTo()
. It only makes the code read a bit differently. The format for the
com-
pare()
method is as follows:
Float.compare(primitiveFloat1, primitiveFloat2)
The
compare()
method shown will actually make the following call using
com-
pareTo()
:
new Float(float1).compareTo(new Float(float2)
