ExplicitCallToCompareToMethod.md

Pattern: Explicit call to compareTo()

Issue: -

Description

This rule detects when the compareTo(Object) method is called directly in code instead of using the <=>, >, >=, <, and <= operators. A groovier way to express this: a.compareTo(b) is this: a <=> b, or using the other operators. Here are some other ways to write groovier code:

a.compareTo(b) == 0               // can be replaced by: a == b
a.compareTo(b)                    // can be replaced by: a <=> b
a.compareTo(b) > 0                // can be replaced by: a > b
a.compareTo(b) >= 0               // can be replaced by: a >= b
a.compareTo(b) < 0                // can be replaced by: a < b
a.compareTo(b) <= 0               // can be replaced by: a <= b

This rule can be configured to ignore this.compareTo(Object) using the ignoreThisReference property. It defaults to false, so even compareTo(x) will trigger a violation.

This rule also ignores all calls to super.compareTo(Object).

Further Reading

• CodeNarc - ExplicitCallToCompareToMethod