Java

Sorting Strings

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Join Date: Oct 2008

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eyndyel

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Sorting Strings

Oct 26th, 2008

I'm currently trying to make a mini dictionary. To do it i need to learn how to sort strings in alphabetical order. Can anyone tell me or give me a hint as to how am i going to sort the words in alphabetical order.

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Join Date: Aug 2007

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darkagn

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Re: Sorting Strings

Oct 26th, 2008

The String method compareToIgnoreCase should do the trick. For example:

 Help with Code Tags 
 java Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
int result = string1.compareToIgnoreCase(string2);
// here result < 0 if string1 > string2
// or result = 0 if string1 == string2
// or result > 0 if string1 < string2
int result = string1.compareToIgnoreCase(string2);
// here result < 0 if string1 > string2
// or result = 0 if string1 == string2
// or result > 0 if string1 < string2

That should give you a start anyway. Have a go and see what you can come up with.

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~s.o.s~

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Re: Sorting Strings

Oct 26th, 2008

> Can anyone tell me or give me a hint as to how am i going to sort the words
> in alphabetical order.

Look into the Collections#sort method which takes a Comparator instance to facilitate custom sorting.

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BestJewSinceJC BestJewSinceJC is offline

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Re: Sorting Strings

Oct 26th, 2008

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Originally Posted by darkagn

The String method compareToIgnoreCase should do the trick. For example:
Help with Code Tags

java Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
int result = string1.compareToIgnoreCase(string2);
// here result < 0 if string1 > string2
// or result = 0 if string1 == string2
// or result > 0 if string1 < string2
int result = string1.compareToIgnoreCase(string2); // here result < 0 if string1 > string2 // or result = 0 if string1 == string2 // or result > 0 if string1 < string2
That should give you a start anyway. Have a go and see what you can come up with.

Are you sure about that? I thought it just added the value of the separate characters for each String, then compared those values. Which would not put them in alphabetical order. I'm not saying you're wrong, just curious.

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darkagn

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Re: Sorting Strings

Oct 27th, 2008

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Originally Posted by BestJewSinceJC

Are you sure about that? I thought it just added the value of the separate characters for each String, then compared those values. Which would not put them in alphabetical order. I'm not saying you're wrong, just curious.

No, the compareToIgnoreCase method's documentation in the API states that it compares the two strings "lexicographically", meaning that they are compared according to where they would be placed in a dictionary. The documentation also states that locales are ignored, but I'm not entirely sure what they mean by that, perhaps accented characters as seen in French or the umlaut in German are not considered?

There are no stupid questions, only those too stupid to ask for help.
echo is a web developer's best friend.