Largest string value (alphabetically)

I want to find the largest string value (alphabetically) in the following ArrayList. How to do that?

Code:

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ArrayList <String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("ABC");
list.add("XYZ");
list.add("KLM");

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This might not be the best implementation, but this might give you an idea. I have used a StringBuffer in the code below because String is immutable. HTH

Code:

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import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.*;
public class LargestString
{
public static void main(String args[])
 {
        ArrayList <String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        list.add("ABC");
        list.add("XYZ");
        list.add("KLM");
        StringBuffer largest = new StringBuffer("");
        for(int i=0; i<list.size(); i++){
                if(list.get(i).compareTo(largest.toString())>0){
                        largest.setLength(0);
                        largest.append(list.get(i));
                }
        }
        System.out.println(largest.toString());
 }
}

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When you say the largest String value do you mean as in size, or do you mean as in b > a < c meaning alphabetical order? For that you would need something like this:

Code:

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                String a = "aaaaa";
                String b = "bb";
               
                char[] aAr = a.toCharArray();
                char[] bAr = b.toCharArray();
               
                int lenA = 0, lenB = 0;
               
                for (int i = 0; i < aAr.length; i++) {
                        lenA += aAr[i];
                }
               
                for (int i = 0; i < bAr.length; i++) {
                        lenB += bAr[i];
                }
               
                System.out.println(lenA + " " + lenB);

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Note that what this code does is first convert the String to a charcter array, then adds their ASCII codes together, meaning that a = 97, while b = 98, b > a. You are going to get problems when it comes to capitals though, since a = 97, while CAPITAL B = 66 making it a > B. One solution is to just convert everything to lowercase before you check it. The other one is a little more complicated, it involves changing the for loops:

Code:

---

                String a = "a";
                String b = "A";

                char[] aAr = a.toCharArray();
                char[] bAr = b.toCharArray();

                int lenA = 0, lenB = 0;

                for (int i = 0; i < aAr.length; i++) {
                        if (aAr[i] >= 90 || aAr[i] < 65)
                                lenA += aAr[i];
                        else
                                lenA += aAr[i] + 64;
                }

                for (int i = 0; i < bAr.length; i++) {
                        if (bAr[i] >= 90 || bAr[i] < 65)
                                lenB += bAr[i];
                        else
                                lenB += bAr[i] + 64;
                }

                System.out.println(lenA + " " + lenB);

---

What this does is simple:
It evaluates the character, if the character value is greater than 54 (so we cover in case there are numbers in the string, 1-9 or other chars) but less then 90, we assume that the value is a capital letter. Then we add to the size the value of the letter + 64, (twice the difference between the lowercase characters, and the uppercase characters).

Thanks to both of use. I have implemented your code and got the required results.

I learned new stuff.
Keep posting.