How can I sort strings in multiple languages?

Is there any way to sort strings in all languages?

• I have this code. It sorts correctly in French and Russian. I used Locale.US and it seems to be right. Is this solution do right with all languages out there? Does it work with other languages? For example: Chinese, Korean, Japanese... If not, what is the better solution? public class CollationTest { public static void main(final String[] args) { final Collator collator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.US); final SortedSet<String> set = new TreeSet<String>(collator); set.add("abîmer"); set.add("abîmé"); set.add("aberrer"); set.add("abhorrer"); set.add("aberrance"); set.add("abécédaire"); set.add("abducteur"); set.add("abdomen"); set.add("государственно-монополистический"); set.add("гостить"); set.add("гостевой"); set.add("гостеприимный"); set.add("госпожа"); set.add("госплан"); set.add("господи"); set.add("господа"); for(final String s : set) { System.out.println(s); } } } Update: Sorry, I don't require this set must contain all languages in order. I mean this set contain one language and sort correctly in every languages. public class CollationTest { public static void main(final String[] args) { final Collator collator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.US); final SortedSet<String> set = new TreeSet<String>(collator); // Sorting in French. set.clear(); set.add("abîmer"); set.add("abîmé"); set.add("aberrer"); set.add("abhorrer"); set.add("aberrance"); set.add("abécédaire"); set.add("abducteur"); set.add("abdomen"); for(final String s : set) { System.out.println(s); } // Sorting in Russian. set.clear(); set.add("государственно-монополистический"); set.add("гостить"); set.add("гостевой"); set.add("гостеприимный"); set.add("госпожа"); set.add("госплан"); set.add("господи"); set.add("господа"); for(final String s : set) { System.out.println(s); } } }

• Answer:

  Because of every language has its own alphabetic order you can not. For example, Russian language as you stated has с letter has a different order than Turkish language. You should always use collator. What I can suggest you is to us Collection API. // // Define a collator for German language // Collator collator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.GERMAN); // // Sort the list using Collator // Collections.sort(words, collator); For futher information check and as stated http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/i18n/text/locale.html This program shows what can happen when you sort the same list of words with two different collators: Collator fr_FRCollator = Collator.getInstance(new Locale("fr","FR")); Collator en_USCollator = Collator.getInstance(new Locale("en","US")); The method for sorting, called sortStrings, can be used with any Collator. Notice that the sortStrings method invokes the compare method: public static void sortStrings(Collator collator, String[] words) { String tmp; for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) { for (int j = i + 1; j < words.length; j++) { if (collator.compare(words[i], words[j]) > 0) { tmp = words[i]; words[i] = words[j]; words[j] = tmp; } } } } The English Collator sorts the words as follows: peach péché pêche sin According to the collation rules of the French language, the preceding list is in the wrong order. In French péché should follow pêche in a sorted list. The French Collator sorts the array of words correctly, as follows: peach pêche péché sin