Hello everyone!
In certain situations the preferred way of sorting strings is a
combination of char-comparing sorting with numeric sorting, where
applicable.
List of strings sorted this way often look more natural to the human eyes:
{ "alpha",
"java1",
"java2",
"java10",
"zero" }
Here's presented a sample implementation of the comparator, which
supports this way of sorting.
I placed it under src/sample directory.
http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~igerasim/XXXXXXX-AlphaNumeric/0/webrev/
MSDN provides the function StrCmpLogicalW(), which can be used for
similar sort order.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb759947%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
The differences are:
- case-sensitivity (StrCmpLogicalW is case-insensitive);
- treating leading zeroes;
- more accurate handling of strings with big numbers, which cannot be
converted to int/long.
I guess this comparator may become particularly useful when we'll have
'java10' and update releases/build numbers > 99 in the lists :)
I want to ask the community about how useful this comparator may be to you?
Sincerely yours,
Ivan
