title: Determine Alphabetic Order of Two Characters in Java
body: <p>Is there a better way to do this? </p>
  
  <pre><code>/* Compares two characters.  
     If ch1 is alphabetically smaller than ch2, return true
     If ch1 is equal to ch2 or is alphabetically greater, return false
  */
  public static boolean smallestCharacter(char ch1, char ch2) {
      return Character.parseChar((new String(ch1)).toLowerCase()) &lt; 
                   Character.parseChar((new String(ch2)).toLowerCase())
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Update: It can be assumed that ch1, and ch2 are both characters from the english alphabet. If you have a similar question, but can't assume that ch2 and ch2 are English characters, I suggest reading @Tedd Hopp's Answer. </p>