/* Collator.java -- Perform locale dependent String comparisons.
Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU Classpath.
GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
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As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
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package java.text;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.MissingResourceException;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;
/**
* This class is the abstract superclass of classes which perform
* locale dependent String comparisons. A caller requests
* an instance of Collator for a particular locale using
* the getInstance() static method in this class. That method
* will return a locale specific subclass of Collator which
* can be used to perform String comparisons for that locale.
* If a subclass of Collator cannot be located for a particular
* locale, a default instance for the current locale will be returned.
*
* In addition to setting the correct locale, there are two additional
* settings that can be adjusted to affect String comparisons:
* strength and decomposition. The strength value determines the level
* of signficance of character differences required for them to sort
* differently. (For example, whether or not capital letters are considered
* different from lower case letters). The decomposition value affects how
* variants of the same character are treated for sorting purposes. (For
* example, whether or not an accent is signficant or not). These settings
* are described in detail in the documentation for the methods and values
* that are related to them.
*
* @author Tom Tromey (tromey@cygnus.com)
* @author Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com)
* @date March 18, 1999
*/
public abstract class Collator implements Comparator