Java String compareToIgnoreCase()

The syntax of the string compareToIgnoreCase() method is:

 string.compareToIgnoreCase(String str)

Here, string is an object of the String class.

compareToIgnoreCase() Parameters

The string compareToIgnoreCase() method takes a single parameter.

• str - the string to be compared

compareToIgnoreCase() Return Value

• returns 0 if the strings are equal, ignoring case considerations
• returns a negative integer if string comes before the str argument in the dictionary order
• returns a positive integer if string comes after the str argument in the dictionary order

Example: Java String compareToIgnoreCase()

 class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { String str1 = "Learn Java"; String str2 = "learn java"; String str3 = "Learn Kolin"; int result; // comparing str1 with str2 result = str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str2); System.out.println(result); // 0 // comparing str1 with str3 result = str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str3); System.out.println(result); // -1 // comparing str3 with str1 result = str3.compareToIgnoreCase(str1); System.out.println(result); // 1 } }

Here,

• str1 and str2 are equal if you do not consider the case differences. Hence, str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str2) returns 0.
• str1 comes before str3 in the dictionary order. Hence, str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str3) returns negative, and str3.compareToIgnoreCase(str1) returns positive.

Example 2: Check if Two Strings are Equal

 class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { String str1 = "LEARN JAVA"; String str2 = "Learn Java"; // if str1 and str2 are equal (ignoring case differences), // the result is 0 if (str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str2) == 0) { System.out.println("str1 and str2 are equal"); } else { System.out.println("str1 and str2 are not equal"); } } }

Output

 str1 and str2 are equal 

If you need to compare two strings with case differences taken into consideration, use either

• Java String CompareTo()
• Java String equals()