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compareTo

Language/Type: Java classes compareTo
Author: Marty Stepp

Write a method named compareTo that will be placed inside the Date class. The compareTo method accepts another Date as a parameter and compares them to see which comes first in chronological order. It returns an integer with the following value:

  • a negative integer (such as -1) if the date represented by this Date comes before that of the parameter
  • 0 if the two Date objects represent the same month and day
  • a positive integer (such as 1) if the date represented by this Date comes after that of the parameter

For example, if these Date objects are declared in client code: 

Date sep19 = new Date(9, 19);
Date dec15 = new Date(12, 15);
Date temp = new Date(9, 19);
Date sep11 = new Date(9, 11);

The following boolean expressions produce true results. 

sep19.compareTo(sep11) > 0
sep11.compareTo(sep19) < 0
temp.compareTo(sep19) == 0  
dec15.compareTo(sep11) > 0

Your method should not modify the state of either Date object (such as by changing their day or month field values).

Type your solution here:


This is a partial class problem. Submit code that will become part of an existing Java class as described. You do not need to write the complete class, just the portion described in the problem.

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