How can I compare two strings in java and define which of them is smaller than the other alphabetically?

You can use

str1.compareTo(str2);

If str1 is lexicographically less than str2, a negative number will be returned, 0 if equal or a positive number if str1 is greater.

E.g.,

"a".compareTo("b"); // returns a negative number, here -1
"a".compareTo("a"); // returns  0
"b".compareTo("a"); // returns a positive number, here 1
"b".compareTo(null); // throws java.lang.NullPointerException