Comparable vs Comparator ??

[Sajee Joseph]

Hello all,
Whats the difference between the Comparable interface and the Comparator interface apart from the presence of equalsTo() method and the difference of names (compare() & compareTo()).
What i understand is basically both these interfaces are meant for the same purpose. For instance if i need to sort an Array of Custom Objects i can use any of these interfaces.
Are there any basic differences between these 2 interfaces?
Regards,
Sajee

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

A "Comparable" is a thing that can be compared to other Comparables.
A Comparator is a thing that compares objects.
Yes, they're both for sorting and ordering objects in containers, but they express subtly different ways of expressing the problem. Comparable is intrusive -- it requires that the compared objects implement it. Comparator has no such restriction -- it can compare any arbitrary objects it wants to. Two Comparables can be compared in only one way. Many Comparators can be written to compare a given class of objects in different ways.

[Siva kandasamy]

Thanks Ernest.
-siva

[Thomas Paul]

The end of the article has examples of using both.
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/July2002/newsletterjuly2002.jsp#collections