Largest string value (alphabetically)

[mew]

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

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

[rajiv_bang]

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

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());
 }
}

[staykovmarin]

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:

		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);

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:

		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).

[mew]

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

I learned new stuff.
Keep posting.