How to Sort a String Array Lexicographically in Java

How to Sort a String Array Lexicographically in Java | Lexicographically means in dictionary order, we will be sorting the string array in the dictionary order.

For example:-
String array = [“Hi”, “This”, “is”, “Java”, ”Program”]
Output:- Hi, is, Java, Program, This

We use two different methods to sort the array in dictionary order.
1) Using a sorting technique
2) Using sort() method

How To Sort Strings Alphabetically In Java

Step-1: Create a method named sortLexicographical() which takes one string array as a parameter.
Step-2: Iterate through the string and compare the strings by using for loops.
Step-3: Then if the first string is greater than the second string swap them here and ignore the case of the strings.
Step-4: In the main method call the sortLexicographical() methods.

import java.util.Arrays;

public class Main {

   public static void sortLexicographically(String str[]) {
      for (int i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
         for (int j = i + 1; j < str.length; j++) {
            if (str[i].compareToIgnoreCase(str[j]) > 0) {
               String temp = str[i];
               str[i] = str[j];
               str[j] = temp;
            }
         }
      }
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      String stringArr[] = 
        {"Zen", "John", "Harry", "Albert", "Nikhi", "Harman"};
      System.out.println("String array: \n" 
         + Arrays.toString(stringArr));
      
      sortLexicographically(stringArr);
      System.out.println("After sorting Lexicographically: \n" 
          + Arrays.toString(stringArr));
   }
}

Output:-

String array:
[Zen, John, Harry, Albert, Nikhi, Harman]
After sorting Lexicographically:
[Albert, Harman, Harry, John, Nikhi, Zen]

To display the string array we have used the toString() method of the Java arrays class which is used to convert an array to a string.

Sort a String Array Lexicographically in Java

In the above program, we have defined a custom method to sort a string array lexicographically in Java. But instead of defining our own method, we can use the sort() method of the Arrays class.

import java.util.Arrays;

public class Main {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      String stringArr[] = 
        {"Zen", "John", "Harry", "Albert", "Nikhi", "Harman"};
      System.out.println("String array: \n" 
         + Arrays.toString(stringArr));
      
      Arrays.sort(stringArr);
      // Or,
      // Arrays.sort(stringArr, String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER);
      
      System.out.println("After sorting Lexicographically: \n" 
          + Arrays.toString(stringArr));
   }
}

Output:-

String array:
[Zen, John, Harry, Albert, Nikhi, Harman]
After sorting Lexicographically:
[Albert, Harman, Harry, John, Nikhi, Zen]

By default Arrays.sort() method sorts the String array lexicographically. The CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER is a comparator defined in the string class. We can also pass a comparator as the second parameter in the Arrays.sort() method.

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