- How to Compare Strings in Kotlin?
- Kotlin – Compare Strings
- Examples
- 1. Two strings are equal
- 2. First string is less than the second string
- 3. First string is greater than the second string
- Conclusion
- Related Tutorials
- How to compare two strings in Kotlin
- 1. Using comparision operators
- 2. Using equals() function
- 3. Using CompareTo() function
How to Compare Strings in Kotlin?
In this tutorial, you shall learn how to compare given two strings in Kotlin, using String.compareTo() function, with examples.
Kotlin – Compare Strings
To compare strings in Kotlin, use String.compareTo() method.
Given two strings str1 and str2 , and if we would like to compare string str1 to string str2 , call compareTo() method on string str1 and pass the string str2 as argument to the method as shown below.
- zero, if str1 equals str2
- negative number if str1 is less than str2 lexicographically
- positive number if str1 is greater than str2 lexicographically
Examples
1. Two strings are equal
In this example, we will take two strings in str1 and str2, such that both have same string values. We shall compare them using compareTo() method and observe the result.
Kotlin Program
Value returned by compareTo() : 0 The two strings are equal.
2. First string is less than the second string
In this example, we will take two strings in str1 and str2, such that str1 occurs before str2 in lexicographical order. We shall compare them using compareTo() method and observe the result. compareTo() should return a negative value.
Kotlin Program
Value returned by compareTo() : -1 This string str1 is less than the other string str2.
3. First string is greater than the second string
In this example, we will take two strings in str1 and str2, such that str1 occurs after str2 in lexicographical order. We shall compare them using compareTo() method and observe the result. compareTo() should return a positive value.
Kotlin Program
Value returned by compareTo() : 1 This string str1 is greater than the other string str2.
Conclusion
In this Kotlin Tutorial, we learned how to compare two strings using String.compareTo() method, with the help of Kotlin example programs.
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How to compare two strings in Kotlin
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The Kotlin language allows multiple ways to check whether or not two strings are equal. Some of them are:
1. Using comparision operators
In Kotlin, == is used to check the structural equality of two objects. It will return true if both the objects have the same value:
fun main(args : Array)val str1: String = "Hello"val str2: String = "Hello World"val str3: String = "Hello"println(str1 == str2) // returns falseprintln(str1 == str3) // returns true>Koltin uses the === operator for referential equality. It returns true if the two variables are pointing to the same object and have the same value.
Whenever we initialize a new String object using «» , it is automatically placed in the string pool. Such strings will always reference the same object.
fun main(args : Array)val str1: String = "Hello"val str2 = String("Hello".toCharArray())println(str1 === str2) // returns falseprintln(str1 == str2) // returns true>2. Using equals() function
Another method to compare two strings in Kotlin is to use the equals() function.
This comparison is case sensitive. For case-insensitive string comparison in Kotlin, pass the second argument as True .
fun main(args : Array)val str1: String = "Hello"val str2: String = "Hello World"val str3: String = "Hello"val str4: String = "hello"println(str1.equals(str2)) // returns falseprintln(str1.equals(str3)) // returns trueprintln(str1.equals(str4, true)) // returns true>3. Using CompareTo() function
Kotlin has another method, CompareTo() , which is used to check the order of two strings.
CompareTo() returns Int value instead of Boolean , as follows:
- If two strings are equal, it returns 0
- If the string is less than the other string, it returns a negative number
- If the string is greater than the other string, it returns a positive number
This comparison is case sensitive. For case-insensitive string comparison in Kotlin, pass the second argument as True .