What does compareTo() actually return?

Question

The compareTo() method in Java returns a value greater/equal/less than 0 and i know that. However, the value itself is my question. What is the difference betwe

Answer 1

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#compareTo(java.lang.String)

This is the definition of lexicographic ordering. If two strings are different, then either they have different characters at some index that is a valid index for both strings, or their lengths are different, or both. If they have different characters at one or more index positions, let k be the smallest such index; then the string whose character at position k has the smaller value, as determined by using the < operator, lexicographically precedes the other string. In this case, compareTo returns the difference of the two character values at position k in the two string -- that is, the value:

this.charAt(k)-anotherString.charAt(k)

If there is no index position at which they differ, then the shorter string lexicographically precedes the longer string. In this case, compareTo returns the difference of the lengths of the strings -- that is, the value:

this.length()-anotherString.length()