| java.util.Comparator<T> | 
|  Known Indirect Subclasses | 
A Comparator is used to compare two objects to determine their ordering with respect to each other. On a given Collection, a Comparator can be used to obtain a sorted Collection which is totally ordered. For a Comparator to be consistent with equals, its {code #compare(Object, Object)} method has to return zero for each pair of elements (a,b) where a.equals(b) holds true. It is recommended that a Comparator implements Serializable.
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           Compares the two specified objects to determine their relative ordering.
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           Compares this 
            Comparatorwith the specifiedObjectand indicates whether they are equal. | ||||||||||
Compares the two specified objects to determine their relative ordering. The ordering implied by the return value of this method for all possible pairs of (lhs, rhs) should form an equivalence relation. This means that 
compare(a,a) returns zero for all acompare(a,b) must be the opposite of the sign of compare(b,a) for all pairs of (a,b)compare(a,b) > 0 and compare(b,c) > 0 it must follow compare(a,c) > 0 for all possible combinations of (a,b,c)| lhs | an Object. | 
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| rhs | a second Objectto compare withlhs. | 
lhs is less than rhs, 0 if they are equal, and > 0 if lhs is greater than rhs.| ClassCastException | if objects are not of the correct type. | 
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Compares this Comparator with the specified Object and indicates whether they are equal. In order to be equal, object must represent the same object as this instance using a class-specific comparison. 
 A Comparator never needs to override this method, but may choose so for performance reasons.
| object | the Objectto compare with this comparator. | 
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true if specified Object is the same as this Object, and false otherwise.