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Class java.text.CollationKey

java.lang.Object
   |
   +----java.text.CollationKey

public final class CollationKey

extends Object

Example of use:

     Collation myCollation = Collation.getDefault(Locale.US);
     CollationKey key1 = myCollation.getCollationKey("abc");
     CollationKey key2 = myCollation.getCollationKey("ABC");
     // do something
 

Because Collation.compare()'s algorithm is complex, it is faster to sort long lists of words by retrieving collation keys with Collation.getCollationKey(). You can then cache the collation keys and compare them using CollationKey.compareTo(). The following is the characteristics of collation keys:

• not bit-ordered (cannot do bit-wise comparison on collation keys)
• must use CollationKey.compareTo to do comparision between collation keys
• can be concatenated
• faster than compare algorithm but slower than sort key comparison

See Also:

Collation, TableCollation, SortKey

compareTo(CollationKey)

Compares the equality between two collation keys.

equals(Object)

Compare if two objects are the same.

hashCode()

Creates an integer that is unique to the collation key.

toString()

The string value of a collation key.

  public byte compareTo(CollationKey target)

Compares the equality between two collation keys. Handles indefinite number of ignorable characters. The generated collation key must be compared with CollationKey.compareTo().

Example of use:

     Collation myCollation = Collation.getDefault(Locale.US);
     CollationKey key1 = myCollation.getCollationKey("abc");
     CollationKey key2 = myCollation.getCollationKey("ABC");
     // Use java.text.CollationKey.compareTo() to compare
     // the keys. Result will be Collation.LESS (key1 < key2)
     byte result = key1.compareTo(key2);
 

Parameters:

target - the target collation key to be used to compare with

Returns:

Returns LESS if this is less than target, GREATER if this is greater than target and EQUAL otherwise.

See Also:

getCollationKey, compareTo

  public String toString()

The string value of a collation key. For debugging purpose only, do not modify the string.

Returns:

the string value of a collation key.

Overrides:

toString in class Object

  public boolean equals(Object source)

Compare if two objects are the same.

Parameters:

source - object to compare to

Returns:

true if equal, false otherwise

Overrides:

equals in class Object

  public int hashCode()

Creates an integer that is unique to the collation key.

Example of use:

     Collation myCollation = Collation.getDefault(Locale.US);
     CollationKey key1 = myCollation.getCollationKey("abc");
     CollationKey key2 = myCollation.getCollationKey("ABC");
     // key1.hashCode() != key2.hashCode()
 

Returns:

the hash value of a collation key

Overrides:

hashCode in class Object

See Also:

hashCode

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