When to implement Comparable<super class of X> instead of Comparable<X>?

Question

class A { ... }


class B extends A implements Comparable<A> {
    int compareTo(A aobject) { ... }
}

Usually we implement Comparable with a type-parameter of B. But java allows using a super class, as well.

Is there a scenario where I really need to do something like this?

Answer 1

For instance if you have also:

Class C extends A implements Comparable<A> {

int compareTo(A aobject) {
/* Implementations */
}

you could compare objects of class B and C together either with c.compareTo(b) or with b.compareTo(c).