Sort string data based on characters and its length

Question

Can I get any easy way in java where I could arrange the alphabets in order where

a < aa < aaa < aaaa
a < b < ab < ba < aba

String.compareTo method will arrange data in the below format. Hence will not serve my purpose a < aa < aaa < b < ab < ba

Kindly help!!!

Answer 1

You can do it by using a Comparator

Check this:

import java.util.Comparator;
public class SComparator implements Comparator<String> {

    @Override
    public int compare(String s1, String s2) {
        if(s1.length() != s2.length()){
            return s1.length() - s2.length();
        }
        return s1.compareTo(s2);
    }

}

Then, you can use it like this:

ArrayList<String> L = new ArrayList<String>();
// ...
Collections.sort(L, new SComparator());

Answer 2

You could use the comparator that compares the string length and use compareTo together

        public int compare( String o1, String o2 )
        {
            if( o1.length() > o2.length() )
            {
                return 1;
            }
            else if( o1.length() < o2.length() )
            {
                return -1;
            }
            return o1.compareTo( o2 );
        }

Answer 3

You can solve this question through sorting as well.

String[] words = {"going", "went", "go", "how", "jam"};    
Arrays.sort(arr);

Output:

go < going < how < jam < went