[java] Simple way to sort strings in the (case sensitive) alphabetical order

I need to sort list of strings in the alphabetical order:

List<String> list = new ArrayList();
list.add("development");
list.add("Development");
list.add("aa");
list.add("AA");
list.add("Aa");

A common way to do it is to use comparator:

Collections.sort(list, String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER);

The problem of the CaseInsensitiveComparator that “AA” is equals to “aa”. Strings appear in the result according to the order of adding for the same values, and it is not correct:

"aa","AA","Aa","development","Development"

I recently answered a similar question here. Applying the same approach to your problem would yield following solution:

list.sort(
  p2Ord(stringOrd, stringOrd).comap(new F<String, P2<String, String>>() {
    public P2<String, String> f(String s) {
      return p(s.toLowerCase(), s);
    }
  })
);

The simple way to solve the problem is to use ComparisonChain from Guava http://docs.guava-libraries.googlecode.com/git/javadoc/com/google/common/collect/ComparisonChain.html

private static Comparator<String> stringAlphabeticalComparator = new Comparator<String>() {
        public int compare(String str1, String str2) {
            return ComparisonChain.start().
                                compare(str1,str2, String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER).
                                compare(str1,str2).
                                result();
         }
 };
Collections.sort(list, stringAlphabeticalComparator);

The first comparator from the chain will sort strings according to the case insensitive order, and the second comparator will sort strings according to the case insensitive order. As excepted strings appear in the result according to the alphabetical order:

"AA","Aa","aa","Development","development"

Simply use

java.util.Collections.sort(list)

without String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER comparator parameter.