How to compare two maps by their values

Question

How to compare two maps by their values? I have two maps containing equal values and want to compare them by their values. Here is an example:

    Map a = ne         


        

Answer 1

All of these are returning equals. They arent actually doing a comparison, which is useful for sort. This will behave more like a comparator:

private static final Comparator stringFallbackComparator = new Comparator() {
    public int compare(Object o1, Object o2) {
        if (!(o1 instanceof Comparable))
            o1 = o1.toString();
        if (!(o2 instanceof Comparable))
            o2 = o2.toString();
        return ((Comparable)o1).compareTo(o2);
    }
};

public int compare(Map m1, Map m2) {
    TreeSet s1 = new TreeSet(stringFallbackComparator); s1.addAll(m1.keySet());
    TreeSet s2 = new TreeSet(stringFallbackComparator); s2.addAll(m2.keySet());
    Iterator i1 = s1.iterator();
    Iterator i2 = s2.iterator();
    int i;
    while (i1.hasNext() && i2.hasNext())
    {
        Object k1 = i1.next();
        Object k2 = i2.next();
        if (0!=(i=stringFallbackComparator.compare(k1, k2)))
            return i;
        if (0!=(i=stringFallbackComparator.compare(m1.get(k1), m2.get(k2))))
            return i;
    }
    if (i1.hasNext())
        return 1;
    if (i2.hasNext())
        return -1;
    return 0;
}