Compare Strings as if they were numbers

Question

I was wondering if it is possible to compare strings as if they were numbers. For instance is there any way you could make it so that "Cat" > "Dog"

Answer 1

Since the only way to do this is to keep a set value for each word, you'd be using arrays, or some other form of data storage.

Here is an example where you just keep the words, and their corresponding values in two arrays (note, they must be in the same order, so the first word corresponds with the first number, etc).

public static String[] words = {"cat","dog","banana"};
public static int[] value = {3,4,5};
public static void main(String[] args){
    if(valOf("Cat") > valOf("Dog")){
        System.out.print("Cat is greater than Dog");
    }
    else{
        System.out.print("Cat is not greater than Dog");
    }
}
public static int valOf(String str){
    for(int x=0;x<words.length;x++){
        if(str.equalsIgnoreCase(words[x])){
            return value[x];
        }
    }
    return -1;
}

Answer 2

You can't use operators (e.g. "Cat" < "Dog") as you suggest. As @larsmans says that would require operator overloading which Java doesn't provide. However, you can still compare strings using "Cat".compareTo("Dog") which returns 0 if the strings are equal, a number greater than 0 if "Cat" is lexicographically less than "Dog", or a negative number otherwise.

See this page

Answer 3

Just implement the Comparator interface and implement the comparison any way you like.

Here is the Javadoc

Answer 4

You can't. This would require operator overloading, which Java won't let you.

Answer 5

Nope, doesn't exist. You have to use compareTo().

Answer 6

You can use the compareTo method in String

Answer 7

You need to use some method as below :

int compare(String s1, String s2);   // write code to do comparison.