Sorting an array of String with custom ordering

Question

I have a String array:

 String[] str = {\"ab\" , \"fog\", \"dog\", \"car\", \"bed\"};
 Arrays.sort(str);
 System.out.println(Arrays.toString(str         


        

Answer 1

final String ORDER= "FCBWHJLOAQUXMPVINTKGZERDYS";

Arrays.sort(str, new Comparator() {

    @Override
    public int compare(String o1, String o2) {
       return ORDER.indexOf(o1) -  ORDER.indexOf(o2) ;
    }
});

You can also add:

o1.toUpperCase()

If your array is case in-sensitive.

---

Apparently the OP wants to compare not only letters but strings of letters, so it's a bit more complicated:

    public int compare(String o1, String o2) {
       int pos1 = 0;
       int pos2 = 0;
       for (int i = 0; i < Math.min(o1.length(), o2.length()) && pos1 == pos2; i++) {
          pos1 = ORDER.indexOf(o1.charAt(i));
          pos2 = ORDER.indexOf(o2.charAt(i));
       }

       if (pos1 == pos2 && o1.length() != o2.length()) {
           return o1.length() - o2.length();
       }

       return pos1  - pos2  ;
    }