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java.text
Class Collator
java.lang.Object
java.text.Collator
-
All Implemented Interfaces:
-
Cloneable
,
Comparator
<
Object
>
-
Direct Known Subclasses:
-
RuleBasedCollator
-
public abstract class Collator
- extends Object
- implements Comparator<Object>, Cloneable
The Collator class performs locale-sensitive String comparison. You use this class to build searching and sorting routines for natural language text.
Collator is an abstract base class. Subclasses implement specific collation strategies. One subclass, RuleBasedCollator, is currently provided with the Java
Platform
2 platform
and is applicable to a wide set of languages. Other subclasses may be created to handle more specialized needs.
Like other locale-sensitive classes, you can use the static factory method, getInstance, to obtain the appropriate Collator object for a given locale. You will only need to look at the subclasses of Collator if you need to understand the details of a particular collation strategy or if you need to modify that strategy.
The following example shows how to compare two strings using the Collator for the default locale.
// Compare two strings in the default locale
Collator myCollator = Collator.getInstance();
if( myCollator.compare("abc", "ABC") < 0 )
System.out.println("abc is less than ABC");
else
System.out.println("abc is greater than or equal to ABC");
You can set a Collator's strength property to determine the level of difference considered significant in comparisons. Four strengths are provided: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, and IDENTICAL. The exact assignment of strengths to language features is locale dependant. For example, in Czech, "e" and "f" are considered primary differences, while "e" and
"ě"
"?"
are secondary differences, "e" and "E" are tertiary differences and "e" and "e" are identical. The following shows how both case and accents could be ignored for US English.
//Get the Collator for US English and set its strength to PRIMARY
Collator usCollator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.US);
usCollator.setStrength(Collator.PRIMARY);
if( usCollator.compare("abc", "ABC") == 0 ) {
System.out.println("Strings are equivalent");
}
For comparing Strings exactly once, the compare method provides the best performance. When sorting a list of Strings however, it is generally necessary to compare each String multiple times. In this case, CollationKeys provide better performance. The CollationKey class converts a String to a series of bits that can be compared bitwise against other CollationKeys. A CollationKey is created by a Collator object for a given String.
Note: CollationKeys from different Collators can not be compared. See the class description for
CollationKey
for an example using CollationKeys.
-
See Also:
-
RuleBasedCollator
,
CollationKey
,
CollationElementIterator
,
Locale
Constructor Summary
|
protected |
Collator
()
Default constructor. |
Method Summary
|
Object
|
clone
()
Overrides Cloneable |
int |
compare
(
Object
o1,
Object
o2)
Compares its two arguments for order. |
abstract int |
compare
(
String
source,
String
target)
Compares the source string to the target string according to the collation rules for this Collator. |
boolean |
equals
(
Object
that)
Compares the equality of two Collators. |
boolean |
equals
(
String
source,
String
target)
Convenience method for comparing the equality of two strings based on this Collator's collation rules. |
static
Locale
[] |
getAvailableLocales
()
Returns an array of all locales for which the getInstance methods of this class can return localized instances. |
abstract
CollationKey
|
getCollationKey
(
String
source)
Transforms the String into a series of bits that can be compared bitwise to other CollationKeys. |
int |
getDecomposition
()
Get the decomposition mode of this Collator. |
static
Collator
|
getInstance
()
Gets the Collator for the current default locale. |
static
Collator
|
getInstance
(
Locale
desiredLocale)
Gets the Collator for the desired locale. |
int |
getStrength
()
Returns this Collator's strength property. |
abstract int |
hashCode
()
Generates the hash code for this Collator. |
void |
setDecomposition
(int decompositionMode)
Set the decomposition mode of this Collator. |
void |
setStrength
(int newStrength)
Sets this Collator's strength property. |
PRIMARY
public static final int PRIMARY
-
Collator strength value. When set, only PRIMARY differences are considered significant during comparison. The assignment of strengths to language features is locale dependant. A common example is for different base letters ("a" vs "b") to be considered a PRIMARY difference.
-
See Also:
-
setStrength(int)
,
getStrength()
,
Constant Field Values
SECONDARY
public static final int SECONDARY
-
Collator strength value. When set, only SECONDARY and above differences are considered significant during comparison. The assignment of strengths to language features is locale dependant. A common example is for different accented forms of the same base letter ("a" vs "?") to be considered a SECONDARY difference.
-
See Also:
-
setStrength(int)
,
getStrength()
,
Constant Field Values
TERTIARY
public static final int TERTIARY
-
Collator strength value. When set, only TERTIARY and above differences are considered significant during comparison. The assignment of strengths to language features is locale dependant. A common example is for case differences ("a" vs "A") to be considered a TERTIARY difference.
-
See Also:
-
setStrength(int)
,
getStrength()
,
Constant Field Values
IDENTICAL
public static final int IDENTICAL
-
Collator strength value. When set, all differences are considered significant during comparison. The assignment of strengths to language features is locale dependant. A common example is for control characters ("\u0001" vs "\u0002") to be considered equal at the PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and TERTIARY levels but different at the IDENTICAL level. Additionally, differences between pre-composed accents such as "\u00C0" (A-grave) and combining accents such as "A\u0300" (A, combining-grave) will be considered significant at the IDENTICAL level if decomposition is set to NO_DECOMPOSITION.
-
See Also:
-
Constant Field Values
NO_DECOMPOSITION
public static final int NO_DECOMPOSITION
-
Decomposition mode value. With NO_DECOMPOSITION set, accented characters will not be decomposed for collation. This is the default setting and provides the fastest collation but will only produce correct results for languages that do not use accents.
-
See Also:
-
getDecomposition()
,
setDecomposition(int)
,
Constant Field Values
CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
public static final int CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
-
Decomposition mode value. With CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION set, characters that are canonical variants according to Unicode standard will be decomposed for collation. This should be used to get correct collation of accented characters.
CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION corresponds to Normalization Form D as described in
Unicode Technical Report #15
Unicode Technical Report #15
.
-
See Also:
-
getDecomposition()
,
setDecomposition(int)
,
Constant Field Values
FULL_DECOMPOSITION
public static final int FULL_DECOMPOSITION
-
Decomposition mode value. With FULL_DECOMPOSITION set, both Unicode canonical variants and Unicode compatibility variants will be decomposed for collation. This causes not only accented characters to be collated, but also characters that have special formats to be collated with their norminal form. For example, the half-width and full-width ASCII and Katakana characters are then collated together. FULL_DECOMPOSITION is the most complete and therefore the slowest decomposition mode.
FULL_DECOMPOSITION corresponds to Normalization Form KD as described in
Unicode Technical Report #15
Unicode Technical Report #15
.
-
See Also:
-
getDecomposition()
,
setDecomposition(int)
,
Constant Field Values
Collator
protected Collator()
-
Default constructor. This constructor is protected so subclasses can get access to it. Users typically create a Collator sub-class by calling the factory method getInstance.
-
See Also:
-
getInstance()
getInstance
public static Collator getInstance()
-
Gets the Collator for the current default locale. The default locale is determined by java.util.Locale.getDefault.
-
-
-
Returns:
-
the Collator for the default locale.(for example, en_US)
-
See Also:
-
Locale.getDefault()
getInstance
public static Collator getInstance(Locale desiredLocale)
-
Gets the Collator for the desired locale.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
desiredLocale - the desired locale.
-
Returns:
-
the Collator for the desired locale.
-
See Also:
-
Locale
,
ResourceBundle
compare
public abstract int compare(String source,
String target)
-
Compares the source string to the target string according to the collation rules for this Collator. Returns an integer less than, equal to or greater than zero depending on whether the source String is less than, equal to or greater than the target string. See the Collator class description for an example of use.
For a one time comparison, this method has the best performance. If a given String will be involved in multiple comparisons, CollationKey.compareTo has the best performance. See the Collator class description for an example using CollationKeys.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
source - the source string.
-
target - the target string.
-
Returns:
-
Returns an integer value. Value is less than zero if source is less than target, value is zero if source and target are equal, value is greater than zero if source is greater than target.
-
See Also:
-
CollationKey
,
getCollationKey(java.lang.String)
compare
public int compare(Object o1,
Object o2)
-
Compares its two arguments for order. Returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as the first argument is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.
This implementation merely returns compare((String)o1, (String)o2) .
-
-
Specified by:
-
compare
in interface
Comparator
<
Object
>
-
-
Parameters:
-
o1 - the first object to be compared.
-
o2 - the second object to be compared.
-
Returns:
-
a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as the first argument is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.
-
Throws:
-
ClassCastException
- the arguments cannot be cast to Strings.
-
Since:
-
1.2
-
See Also:
-
Comparator
getCollationKey
public abstract CollationKey getCollationKey(String source)
-
Transforms the String into a series of bits that can be compared bitwise to other CollationKeys. CollationKeys provide better performance than Collator.compare when Strings are involved in multiple comparisons. See the Collator class description for an example using CollationKeys.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
source - the string to be transformed into a collation key.
-
Returns:
-
the CollationKey for the given String based on this Collator's collation rules. If the source String is null, a null CollationKey is returned.
-
See Also:
-
CollationKey
,
compare(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)
equals
public boolean equals(String source,
String target)
-
Convenience method for comparing the equality of two strings based on this Collator's collation rules.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
source - the source string to be compared with.
-
target - the target string to be compared with.
-
Returns:
-
true if the strings are equal according to the collation rules. false, otherwise.
-
See Also:
-
compare(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)
getStrength
public int getStrength()
-
Returns this Collator's strength property. The strength property determines the minimum level of difference considered significant during comparison. See the Collator class description for an example of use.
-
-
-
Returns:
-
this Collator's current strength property.
-
See Also:
-
setStrength(int)
,
PRIMARY
,
SECONDARY
,
TERTIARY
,
IDENTICAL
setStrength
public void setStrength(int newStrength)
-
Sets this Collator's strength property. The strength property determines the minimum level of difference considered significant during comparison. See the Collator class description for an example of use.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
newStrength - the new strength value.
-
Throws:
-
IllegalArgumentException
- If the new strength value is not one of PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY or IDENTICAL.
-
See Also:
-
getStrength()
,
PRIMARY
,
SECONDARY
,
TERTIARY
,
IDENTICAL
getDecomposition
public int getDecomposition()
-
Get the decomposition mode of this Collator. Decomposition mode determines how Unicode composed characters are handled. Adjusting decomposition mode allows the user to select between faster and more complete collation behavior.
The three values for decomposition mode are:
-
NO_DECOMPOSITION,
-
CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
-
FULL_DECOMPOSITION.
See the documentation for these three constants for a description of their meaning.
-
-
-
Returns:
-
the decomposition mode
-
See Also:
-
setDecomposition(int)
,
NO_DECOMPOSITION
,
CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
,
FULL_DECOMPOSITION
setDecomposition
public void setDecomposition(int decompositionMode)
-
Set the decomposition mode of this Collator. See getDecomposition for a description of decomposition mode.
-
-
-
Parameters:
-
decompositionMode - the new decomposition mode.
-
Throws:
-
IllegalArgumentException
- If the given value is not a valid decomposition mode.
-
See Also:
-
getDecomposition()
,
NO_DECOMPOSITION
,
CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
,
FULL_DECOMPOSITION
getAvailableLocales
public static Locale[] getAvailableLocales()
-
Returns an array of all locales for which the getInstance methods of this class can return localized instances. The returned array represents the union of locales supported by the Java runtime and by installed
CollatorProvider
implementations. It must contain at least a Locale instance equal to
Locale.US
.
-
-
-
Returns:
-
An array of locales for which localized Collator instances are available.
clone
public Object clone()
-
Overrides Cloneable
-
-
Overrides:
-
clone
in class
Object
-
-
Returns:
-
a clone of this instance.
-
See Also:
-
Cloneable
equals
public boolean equals(Object that)
-
Compares the equality of two Collators.
-
-
Specified by:
-
equals
in interface
Comparator
<
Object
>
-
Overrides:
-
equals
in class
Object
-
-
Parameters:
-
that - the Collator to be compared with this.
-
Returns:
-
true if this Collator is the same as that Collator; false otherwise.
-
See Also:
-
Object.hashCode()
,
Hashtable
hashCode
public abstract int hashCode()
-
Generates the hash code for this Collator.
-
-
Overrides:
-
hashCode
in class
Object
-
-
Returns:
-
a hash code value for this object.
-
See Also:
-
Object.equals(java.lang.Object)
,
Hashtable