This class is a concrete subclass of the abstract Collator class. It performs collations using a table of rules that are specified in textual form. Most applications do not use this class directly; instead they call Collator.getInstance( ) to obtain a Collator object (typically a RuleBasedCollator object) that implements the default collation order for a specified or default locale. You should need to use this class only if you are collating strings for a locale that is not supported by default or if you need to implement a highly customized collation order.

Figure 15-15. java.text.RuleBasedCollator

public class RuleBasedCollator extends Collator {
// Public Constructors
     public RuleBasedCollator(String rules) throws ParseException;  
// Public Instance Methods
1.2  public CollationElementIterator getCollationElementIterator(CharacterIterator source);  
     public CollationElementIterator getCollationElementIterator(String source);  
     public String getRules( );  
// Public Methods Overriding Collator
     public Object clone( );  
     public int compare(String source, String target);                  synchronized
     public boolean equals(Object obj);  
     public CollationKey getCollationKey(String source);                synchronized
     public int hashCode( );  
}