Comparable<T> class
Interface used by types that have an intrinsic ordering.
The compareTo operation defines a total ordering of objects, which can be used for ordering and sorting.
The Comparable interface should be used for the natural ordering of a type. If a type can be ordered in more than one way, and none of them is the obvious natural ordering, then it might be better not to use the Comparable interface, and to provide separate Comparators instead.
It is recommended that the order of a Comparable agrees
with its operator operator == equality (a.compareTo(b) == 0
iff a == b
),
but this is not a requirement.
For example, double and DateTime have compareTo
methods
that do not agree with operator operator ==.
For doubles the compareTo method is more precise than the equality,
and for DateTime it is less precise.
Examples:
(0.0).compareTo(-0.0); // => 1
0.0 == -0.0; // => true
var dt = new DateTime.now();
var dt2 = dt.toUtc();
dt == dt2; // => false
dt.compareTo(dt2); // => 0
The Comparable interface does not imply the existence
of the comparison operators <
, <=
, >
and >=
.
These should only be defined
if the ordering is a less-than/greater-than ordering,
that is, an ordering where you would naturally
use the words "less than" about the order of two elements.
If the equality operator and compareTo disagree,
the comparison operators should follow the equality operator,
and will likely also disagree with compareTo.
Otherwise they should match the compareTo method,
so that a < b
iff a.compareTo(b) < 0
.
The double class defines comparison operators
that are compatible with equality.
The operators differ from double.compareTo
on -0.0 and NaN.
The DateTime class has no comparison operators, instead it has the more precisely named DateTime.isBefore and DateTime.isAfter.
Constructors
Properties
- hashCode → int
-
The hash code for this object. [...]
read-only, inherited
- runtimeType → Type
-
A representation of the runtime type of the object.
read-only, inherited
Methods
-
compareTo(
T other) → int - Compares this object to another Comparable [...]
-
noSuchMethod(
Invocation invocation) → dynamic -
Invoked when a non-existent method or property is accessed. [...]
inherited
-
toString(
) → String -
Returns a string representation of this object.
inherited
Operators
-
operator ==(
dynamic other) → bool -
The equality operator. [...]
inherited
Static Methods
-
compare(
Comparable a Comparable b) → int - A Comparator that compares one comparable to another. [...]