private static int compareOffsets(String offset1, String offset2) {
    return Long.valueOf(offset1).compareTo(Long.valueOf(offset2));
  }
Compare two String offsets.
Note. There is a method in KafkaSystemAdmin that does that, but that would require instantiation of systemadmin for each consumer.
@return see {@link Long#compareTo(Long)}
samza-kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/samza/system/kafka/KafkaSystemConsumer.java