Compare two file paths in Java

Two file paths can be compared lexicographically in Java using the method java.io.File.compareTo(). This method requires a single parameter i.e.the abstract path name that is to be compared. It returns 0 if the two file path names are equal.

A program that demonstrates this is given as follows −

Example

 Live Demo

import java.io.File; public class Demo {    public static void main(String[] args) {       File file1 = new File("C:/File/demo1.txt");       File file2 = new File("C:/File/demo1.txt");       if (file1.compareTo(file2) == 0) {          System.out.println("Both the paths are lexicographically equal");       } else {          System.out.println("Both the paths are lexicographically not equal");       }    } }

The output of the above program is as follows −

Output

Both the paths are lexicographically equal

Now let us understand the above program.

The method java.io.File.compareTo() is used to compare the two file paths lexicographically. If 0 is returned by the method, the file paths are lexicographically equal, otherwise not. A code snippet that demonstrates this is given as follows −

File file1 = new File("C:/File/demo1.txt"); File file2 = new File("C:/File/demo1.txt"); if (file1.compareTo(file2) == 0) {    System.out.println("Both the paths are lexicographically equal"); } else {    System.out.println("Both the paths are lexicographically not equal"); }