Finite difference scheme to the generalized one‐dimensional sine‐Gordon equation is considered in this paper. After approximating the second order derivative in the space variable by the compact finite difference, we transform the sine‐Gordon equation into an initial‐value problem of a second‐order ordinary differential equation. Then Padé approximant is used to approximate the time derivatives. The resulting fully discrete nonlinear finite‐difference equation is solved by a predictor‐corrector scheme. Both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are considered in our proposed algorithm. Stability analysis and error estimate are given for homogeneous Dirichlet boundary value problems using energy method. Numerical results are given to verify the condition for stability and convergence and to examine the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009