This class compares, orders, and sorts strings in a way appropriate for the default locale or some other specified locale. Because it is an abstract class, it cannot be instantiated directly. Instead, you must use the static getInstance( ) method to obtain an instance of a Collator subclass that is appropriate for the default or specified locale. You can use getAvailableLocales( ) to determine whether a Collator object is available for a desired locale.

Once an appropriate Collator object has been obtained, you can use the compare( ) method to compare strings. The possible return values of this method are -1, 0, and 1, which indicate, respectively, that the first string is collated before the second, that the two are equivalent for collation purposes, and that the first string is collated after the second. The equals( ) method is a convenient shortcut for testing two strings for collation equivalence.

When sorting an array of strings, each string in the array is typically compared more than once. Using the compare( ) method in this case is inefficient. A more efficient method for comparing strings multiple times is to use getCollationKey( ) for each string to create CollationKey objects. These objects can then be compared to each other more quickly than the strings themselves can be compared.

You can customize the way the Collator object performs comparisons by calling setStrength( ). If you pass the constant PRIMARY to this method, the comparison looks only at primary differences in the strings; it compares letters but ignores accents and case differences. If you pass the constant SECONDARY, it ignores case differences but does not ignore accents. And if you pass TERTIARY (the default), the Collator object takes both accents and case differences into account in its comparison.

Figure 15-6. java.text.Collator

public abstract class Collator implements java.util.Comparator<Object>, 
        Cloneable {
// Protected Constructors
     protected Collator( );  
// Public Constants
     public static final int CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION;                    =1
     public static final int FULL_DECOMPOSITION;                         =2
     public static final int IDENTICAL;                                  =3
     public static final int NO_DECOMPOSITION;                           =0
     public static final int PRIMARY;                                    =0
     public static final int SECONDARY;                                  =1
     public static final int TERTIARY;                                   =2
// Public Class Methods
     public static java.util.Locale[ ] getAvailableLocales( );   synchronized
     public static Collator getInstance( );                synchronized
     public static Collator 
        getInstance(java.util.Locale desiredLocale);     synchronized
// Public Instance Methods
     public abstract int compare(String source, String target);  
     public boolean equals(Object that);    Implements:Comparator
     public boolean equals(String source, String target);  
     public abstract CollationKey getCollationKey(String source);  
     public int getDecomposition( );                 synchronized
     public int getStrength( );                synchronized
     public void setDecomposition(int decompositionMode);   synchronized
     public void setStrength(int newStrength);              synchronized
// Methods Implementing Comparator
1.2  public int compare(Object o1, Object o2);  
     public boolean equals(Object that);  
// Public Methods Overriding Object
     public Object clone( );  
     public abstract int hashCode( );  
}

Subclasses

RuleBasedCollator