// "I am little confused about the compareTo method. When and how do we use it?"
public class CompareTo
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
      String a = new String("ABCD"); // Object instantiation
      String b;                      // stand-alone declarations, no object creation
      b = new String("ABCDEFG");     // object created and assigned to variable
      String c =     "Aardvark";         // For strings only, short cut

      System.out.println(a.compareTo(b));
      System.out.println(b.compareTo(a));
      System.out.println();

      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c));
      System.out.println(c.compareTo(a));
      System.out.println();

//*
      System.out.println(a.charAt(1));
      System.out.println(c.charAt(1));
      System.out.println('B' - 'a');
      System.out.println((int)'B');
      System.out.println((int)'a');
      System.out.println();

//*
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) > 0); // a > c?
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) < 0); // a < c?
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) == 0); // a == c?
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) >= 0); // a >= c?
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) <= 0); // a <= c?
      System.out.println(a.compareTo(c) != 0); // a != c?
//*/
   }
}