Comparable
doesn’t allow null
simply because:
a.compareTo(b) == -b.compareTo(a)
for all objects a
and b
where !a.equals(b)
. More specifically:
a.equals(b) ? b.equals(a) && a.compareTo(b) == 0 &&
b.compareTo(a) == 0 && a.hashCode() == b.hashCode()
: !b.equals(a) && a.compareTo(b) != 0 &&
a.compareTo(b) == -b.compareTo(a)
must evaluate to true
to satisfy the relevant contracts.
So null
isn’t allowed because you can’t do:
null.compareTo(a)
Comparator
is more flexible so handling of null
is an implementation-specific issue. Support it or not depending on what you want your Comparator
to do.