Collator (icu4j)

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com.ibm.icu.text
Class Collator

java.lang.Object
  com.ibm.icu.text.Collator

All Implemented Interfaces:: Cloneable, Comparator<Object>

Direct Known Subclasses:: RuleBasedCollator

public abstract class Collator
extends Object
implements Comparator<Object>, Cloneable
extends Object
implements Comparator<Object>, Cloneable

[icu enhancement] ICU's replacement for java.text.Collator. Methods, fields, and other functionality specific to ICU are labeled '[icu]'.

Collator performs locale-sensitive string comparison. A concrete subclass, RuleBasedCollator, allows customization of the collation ordering by the use of rule sets.

Following the Unicode Consortium's specifications for the Unicode Collation Algorithm (UCA), there are 5 different levels of strength used in comparisons:

PRIMARY strength: Typically, this is used to denote differences between base characters (for example, "a" < "b"). It is the strongest difference. For example, dictionaries are divided into different sections by base character.
SECONDARY strength: Accents in the characters are considered secondary differences (for example, "as" < "às" < "at"). Other differences between letters can also be considered secondary differences, depending on the language. A secondary difference is ignored when there is a primary difference anywhere in the strings.
TERTIARY strength: Upper and lower case differences in characters are distinguished at tertiary strength (for example, "ao" < "Ao" < "aò"). In addition, a variant of a letter differs from the base form on the tertiary strength (such as "A" and "Ⓐ"). Another example is the difference between large and small Kana. A tertiary difference is ignored when there is a primary or secondary difference anywhere in the strings.
QUATERNARY strength: When punctuation is ignored (see Ignoring Punctuations in the user guide) at PRIMARY to TERTIARY strength, an additional strength level can be used to distinguish words with and without punctuation (for example, "ab" < "a-b" < "aB"). This difference is ignored when there is a PRIMARY, SECONDARY or TERTIARY difference. The QUATERNARY strength should only be used if ignoring punctuation is required.
IDENTICAL strength: When all other strengths are equal, the IDENTICAL strength is used as a tiebreaker. The Unicode code point values of the NFD form of each string are compared, just in case there is no difference. For example, Hebrew cantellation marks are only distinguished at this strength. This strength should be used sparingly, as only code point value differences between two strings is an extremely rare occurrence. Using this strength substantially decreases the performance for both comparison and collation key generation APIs. This strength also increases the size of the collation key.

Unlike the JDK, ICU4J's Collator deals only with 2 decomposition modes, the canonical decomposition mode and one that does not use any decomposition. The compatibility decomposition mode, java.text.Collator.FULL_DECOMPOSITION is not supported here. If the canonical decomposition mode is set, the Collator handles un-normalized text properly, producing the same results as if the text were normalized in NFD. If canonical decomposition is turned off, it is the user's responsibility to ensure that all text is already in the appropriate form before performing a comparison or before getting a CollationKey.

For more information about the collation service see the users guide.

Examples of use

 // Get the Collator for US English and set its strength to PRIMARY
 Collator usCollator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.US);
 usCollator.setStrength(Collator.PRIMARY);
 if (usCollator.compare("abc", "ABC") == 0) {
     System.out.println("Strings are equivalent");
 }

 The following example shows how to compare two strings using the
 Collator for the default locale.

 // Compare two strings in the default locale
 Collator myCollator = Collator.getInstance();
 myCollator.setDecomposition(NO_DECOMPOSITION);
 if (myCollator.compare("à\u0325", "a\u0325̀") != 0) {
     System.out.println("à\u0325 is not equals to a\u0325̀ without decomposition");
     myCollator.setDecomposition(CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION);
     if (myCollator.compare("à\u0325", "a\u0325̀") != 0) {
         System.out.println("Error: à\u0325 should be equals to a\u0325̀ with decomposition");
     }
     else {
         System.out.println("à\u0325 is equals to a\u0325̀ with decomposition");
     }
 }
 else {
     System.out.println("Error: à\u0325 should be not equals to a\u0325̀ without decomposition");
 }

Author:: Syn Wee Quek
See Also:: RuleBasedCollator, CollationKey
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

Nested Class Summary
`static class`	`Collator.CollatorFactory` A factory used with registerFactory to register multiple collators and provide display names for them.
`static interface`	`Collator.ReorderCodes` Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.

Field Summary
`static int`	`CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION` Decomposition mode value.
`static int`	`FULL_DECOMPOSITION` [icu] Note: This is for backwards compatibility with Java APIs only.
`static int`	`IDENTICAL` Smallest Collator strength value.
`static int`	`NO_DECOMPOSITION` Decomposition mode value.
`static int`	`PRIMARY` Strongest collator strength value.
`static int`	`QUATERNARY` [icu] Fourth level collator strength value.
`static int`	`SECONDARY` Second level collator strength value.
`static int`	`TERTIARY` Third level collator strength value.

Constructor Summary
`protected`	`Collator()` Empty default constructor to make javadocs happy

Method Summary
`Object`	`clone()` Clones the collator.
`int`	`compare(Object source, Object target)` Compares the source Object to the target Object.
`abstract int`	`compare(String source, String target)` Compares the source text String to the target text String according to this Collator's rules, strength and decomposition mode.
`boolean`	`equals(String source, String target)` Compares the equality of two text Strings using this Collator's rules, strength and decomposition mode.
`static Locale[]`	`getAvailableLocales()` Returns the set of locales, as Locale objects, for which collators are installed.
`static ULocale[]`	`getAvailableULocales()` [icu] Returns the set of locales, as ULocale objects, for which collators are installed.
`abstract CollationKey`	`getCollationKey(String source)` Transforms the String into a CollationKey suitable for efficient repeated comparison.
`int`	`getDecomposition()` Returns the decomposition mode of this Collator.
`static String`	`getDisplayName(Locale objectLocale)` [icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the default `DISPLAY` locale.
`static String`	`getDisplayName(Locale objectLocale, Locale displayLocale)` [icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the displayLocale.
`static String`	`getDisplayName(ULocale objectLocale)` [icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the default `DISPLAY` locale.
`static String`	`getDisplayName(ULocale objectLocale, ULocale displayLocale)` [icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the displayLocale.
`static ULocale`	`getFunctionalEquivalent(String keyword, ULocale locID)` [icu] Returns the functionally equivalent locale for the given requested locale, with respect to given keyword, for the collation service.
`static ULocale`	`getFunctionalEquivalent(String keyword, ULocale locID, boolean[] isAvailable)` [icu] Returns the functionally equivalent locale for the given requested locale, with respect to given keyword, for the collation service.
`static Collator`	`getInstance()` Returns the Collator for the current default locale.
`static Collator`	`getInstance(Locale locale)` Returns the Collator for the desired locale.
`static Collator`	`getInstance(ULocale locale)` [icu] Returns the Collator for the desired locale.
`static String[]`	`getKeywords()` [icu] Returns an array of all possible keywords that are relevant to collation.
`static String[]`	`getKeywordValues(String keyword)` [icu] Given a keyword, returns an array of all values for that keyword that are currently in use.
`static String[]`	`getKeywordValuesForLocale(String key, ULocale locale, boolean commonlyUsed)` [icu] Given a key and a locale, returns an array of string values in a preferred order that would make a difference.
`ULocale`	`getLocale(ULocale.Type type)` [icu] Returns the locale that was used to create this object, or null.
`abstract RawCollationKey`	`getRawCollationKey(String source, RawCollationKey key)` [icu] Returns the simpler form of a CollationKey for the String source following the rules of this Collator and stores the result into the user provided argument key.
`int[]`	`getReorderCodes()` Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.
`int`	`getStrength()` Returns this Collator's strength property.
`UnicodeSet`	`getTailoredSet()` [icu] Returns a UnicodeSet that contains all the characters and sequences tailored in this collator.
`abstract VersionInfo`	`getUCAVersion()` [icu] Returns the UCA version of this collator object.
`abstract int`	`getVariableTop()` [icu] Returns the variable top value of a Collator.
`abstract VersionInfo`	`getVersion()` [icu] Returns the version of this collator object.
`static Object`	`registerFactory(Collator.CollatorFactory factory)` [icu] Registers a collator factory.
`static Object`	`registerInstance(Collator collator, ULocale locale)` [icu] Registers a collator as the default collator for the provided locale.
`void`	`setDecomposition(int decomposition)` Sets the decomposition mode of this Collator.
`void`	`setReorderCodes(int... order)` Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.
`void`	`setStrength(int newStrength)` Sets this Collator's strength property.
`Collator`	`setStrength2(int newStrength)` Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.
`abstract void`	`setVariableTop(int varTop)` [icu] Sets the variable top to a collation element value supplied.
`abstract int`	`setVariableTop(String varTop)` [icu] Variable top is a two byte primary value which causes all the codepoints with primary values that are less or equal than the variable top to be shifted when alternate handling is set to SHIFTED.
`static boolean`	`unregister(Object registryKey)` [icu] Unregisters a collator previously registered using registerInstance.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

Methods inherited from interface java.util.Comparator
`equals`

Field Detail

PRIMARY

public static final int PRIMARY

Strongest collator strength value. Typically used to denote differences between base characters. See class documentation for more explanation.

See Also:: setStrength(int), getStrength(), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

SECONDARY

public static final int SECONDARY

Second level collator strength value. Accents in the characters are considered secondary differences. Other differences between letters can also be considered secondary differences, depending on the language. See class documentation for more explanation.

See Also:: setStrength(int), getStrength(), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

TERTIARY

public static final int TERTIARY

Third level collator strength value. Upper and lower case differences in characters are distinguished at this strength level. In addition, a variant of a letter differs from the base form on the tertiary level. See class documentation for more explanation.

See Also:: setStrength(int), getStrength(), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

QUATERNARY

public static final int QUATERNARY

[icu] Fourth level collator strength value. When punctuation is ignored (see Ignoring Punctuations in the user guide) at PRIMARY to TERTIARY strength, an additional strength level can be used to distinguish words with and without punctuation. See class documentation for more explanation.

See Also:: setStrength(int), getStrength(), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

IDENTICAL

public static final int IDENTICAL

Smallest Collator strength value. When all other strengths are equal, the IDENTICAL strength is used as a tiebreaker. The Unicode code point values of the NFD form of each string are compared, just in case there is no difference. See class documentation for more explanation.

Note this value is different from JDK's

See Also:: Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

FULL_DECOMPOSITION

public static final int FULL_DECOMPOSITION

[icu] Note: This is for backwards compatibility with Java APIs only. It should not be used, IDENTICAL should be used instead. ICU's collation does not support Java's FULL_DECOMPOSITION mode.

See Also:: Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 3.4.

NO_DECOMPOSITION

public static final int NO_DECOMPOSITION

Decomposition mode value. With NO_DECOMPOSITION set, Strings will not be decomposed for collation. This is the default decomposition setting unless otherwise specified by the locale used to create the Collator.

Note this value is different from the JDK's.

See Also:: CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION, getDecomposition(), setDecomposition(int), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION

public static final int CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION

Decomposition mode value. With CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION set, characters that are canonical variants according to the Unicode standard will be decomposed for collation.

CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION corresponds to Normalization Form D as described in Unicode Technical Report #15.

See Also:: NO_DECOMPOSITION, getDecomposition(), setDecomposition(int), Constant Field Values
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

Constructor Detail

Collator

protected Collator()

Empty default constructor to make javadocs happy

Status:: Stable ICU 2.4.

Method Detail

setStrength

public void setStrength(int newStrength)

Sets this Collator's strength property. The strength property determines the minimum level of difference considered significant during comparison.

The default strength for the Collator is TERTIARY, unless specified otherwise by the locale used to create the Collator.

See the Collator class description for an example of use.

Parameters:: newStrength - the new strength value.
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - if the new strength value is not one of PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, QUATERNARY or IDENTICAL.
See Also:: getStrength(), PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, QUATERNARY, IDENTICAL
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

setStrength2

public Collator setStrength2(int newStrength)

Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.

Status:: Internal. This API is ICU internal only.

setDecomposition

public void setDecomposition(int decomposition)

Sets the decomposition mode of this Collator. Setting this decomposition property with CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION allows the Collator to handle un-normalized text properly, producing the same results as if the text were normalized. If NO_DECOMPOSITION is set, it is the user's responsibility to insure that all text is already in the appropriate form before a comparison or before getting a CollationKey. Adjusting decomposition mode allows the user to select between faster and more complete collation behavior.

Since a great many of the world's languages do not require text normalization, most locales set NO_DECOMPOSITION as the default decomposition mode.

The default decompositon mode for the Collator is NO_DECOMPOSITON, unless specified otherwise by the locale used to create the Collator.

See getDecomposition for a description of decomposition mode.

Parameters:: decomposition - the new decomposition mode
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - If the given value is not a valid decomposition mode.
See Also:: getDecomposition(), NO_DECOMPOSITION, CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

setReorderCodes

public void setReorderCodes(int... order)

Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.

Set the reordering codes for this collator. The reordering codes are a combination of UScript and ReorderingCodes. These allow the order of these groups to be changed as a group.

Parameters:: order - the reordering codes to apply to this collator, if null then clears the reordering
See Also:: getReorderCodes()
Status:: Internal. This API is ICU internal only.

getInstance

public static final Collator getInstance()

Returns the Collator for the current default locale. The default locale is determined by java.util.Locale.getDefault().

Returns:: the Collator for the default locale (for example, en_US) if it is created successfully. Otherwise if there is no Collator associated with the current locale, the default UCA collator will be returned.
See Also:: Locale.getDefault(), getInstance(Locale)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

clone

public Object clone()
             throws CloneNotSupportedException

Clones the collator.

Overrides:: clone in class Object

Returns:: a clone of this collator.
Throws:: CloneNotSupportedException
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getInstance

public static final Collator getInstance(ULocale locale)

[icu] Returns the Collator for the desired locale.

Parameters:: locale - the desired locale.
Returns:: Collator for the desired locale if it is created successfully. Otherwise if there is no Collator associated with the current locale, a default UCA collator will be returned.
See Also:: Locale, ResourceBundle, getInstance(Locale), getInstance()
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getInstance

public static final Collator getInstance(Locale locale)

Returns the Collator for the desired locale.

Parameters:: locale - the desired locale.
Returns:: Collator for the desired locale if it is created successfully. Otherwise if there is no Collator associated with the current locale, a default UCA collator will be returned.
See Also:: Locale, ResourceBundle, getInstance(ULocale), getInstance()
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

registerInstance

public static final Object registerInstance(Collator collator,
                                            ULocale locale)

[icu] Registers a collator as the default collator for the provided locale. The collator should not be modified after it is registered.

Parameters:: collator - the collator to register; locale - the locale for which this is the default collator
Returns:: an object that can be used to unregister the registered collator.
Status:: Stable ICU 3.2.

registerFactory

public static final Object registerFactory(Collator.CollatorFactory factory)

[icu] Registers a collator factory.

Parameters:: factory - the factory to register
Returns:: an object that can be used to unregister the registered factory.
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

unregister

public static final boolean unregister(Object registryKey)

[icu] Unregisters a collator previously registered using registerInstance.

Parameters:: registryKey - the object previously returned by registerInstance.
Returns:: true if the collator was successfully unregistered.
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getAvailableLocales

public static Locale[] getAvailableLocales()

Returns the set of locales, as Locale objects, for which collators are installed. Note that Locale objects do not support RFC 3066.

Returns:: the list of locales in which collators are installed. This list includes any that have been registered, in addition to those that are installed with ICU4J.
Status:: Stable ICU 2.4.

getAvailableULocales

public static final ULocale[] getAvailableULocales()

[icu] Returns the set of locales, as ULocale objects, for which collators are installed. ULocale objects support RFC 3066.

Returns:: the list of locales in which collators are installed. This list includes any that have been registered, in addition to those that are installed with ICU4J.
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getKeywords

public static final String[] getKeywords()

[icu] Returns an array of all possible keywords that are relevant to collation. At this point, the only recognized keyword for this service is "collation".

Returns:: an array of valid collation keywords.
See Also:: getKeywordValues(java.lang.String)
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getKeywordValues

public static final String[] getKeywordValues(String keyword)

[icu] Given a keyword, returns an array of all values for that keyword that are currently in use.

Parameters:: keyword - one of the keywords returned by getKeywords.
See Also:: getKeywords()
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getKeywordValuesForLocale

public static final String[] getKeywordValuesForLocale(String key,
                                                       ULocale locale,
                                                       boolean commonlyUsed)

[icu] Given a key and a locale, returns an array of string values in a preferred order that would make a difference. These are all and only those values where the open (creation) of the service with the locale formed from the input locale plus input keyword and that value has different behavior than creation with the input locale alone.

Parameters:: key - one of the keys supported by this service. For now, only "collation" is supported.; locale - the locale; commonlyUsed - if set to true it will return only commonly used values with the given locale in preferred order. Otherwise, it will return all the available values for the locale.
Returns:: an array of string values for the given key and the locale.
Status:: Stable ICU 4.2.

getFunctionalEquivalent

public static final ULocale getFunctionalEquivalent(String keyword,
                                                    ULocale locID,
                                                    boolean[] isAvailable)

[icu] Returns the functionally equivalent locale for the given requested locale, with respect to given keyword, for the collation service. If two locales return the same result, then collators instantiated for these locales will behave equivalently. The converse is not always true; two collators may in fact be equivalent, but return different results, due to internal details. The return result has no other meaning than that stated above, and implies nothing as to the relationship between the two locales. This is intended for use by applications who wish to cache collators, or otherwise reuse collators when possible. The functional equivalent may change over time. For more information, please see the Locales and Services section of the ICU User Guide.

Parameters:: keyword - a particular keyword as enumerated by getKeywords.; locID - The requested locale; isAvailable - If non-null, isAvailable[0] will receive and output boolean that indicates whether the requested locale was 'available' to the collation service. If non-null, isAvailable must have length >= 1.
Returns:: the locale
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getFunctionalEquivalent

public static final ULocale getFunctionalEquivalent(String keyword,
                                                    ULocale locID)

[icu] Returns the functionally equivalent locale for the given requested locale, with respect to given keyword, for the collation service.

Parameters:: keyword - a particular keyword as enumerated by getKeywords.; locID - The requested locale
Returns:: the locale
See Also:: getFunctionalEquivalent(String,ULocale,boolean[])
Status:: Stable ICU 3.0.

getDisplayName

public static String getDisplayName(Locale objectLocale,
                                    Locale displayLocale)

[icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the displayLocale.

Parameters:: objectLocale - the locale of the collator; displayLocale - the locale for the collator's display name
Returns:: the display name
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getDisplayName

public static String getDisplayName(ULocale objectLocale,
                                    ULocale displayLocale)

[icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the displayLocale.

Parameters:: objectLocale - the locale of the collator; displayLocale - the locale for the collator's display name
Returns:: the display name
Status:: Stable ICU 3.2.

getDisplayName

public static String getDisplayName(Locale objectLocale)

[icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the default DISPLAY locale.

Parameters:: objectLocale - the locale of the collator
Returns:: the display name
See Also:: ULocale.Category.DISPLAY
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getDisplayName

public static String getDisplayName(ULocale objectLocale)

[icu] Returns the name of the collator for the objectLocale, localized for the default DISPLAY locale.

Parameters:: objectLocale - the locale of the collator
Returns:: the display name
See Also:: ULocale.Category.DISPLAY
Status:: Stable ICU 3.2.

getStrength

public int getStrength()

Returns this Collator's strength property. The strength property determines the minimum level of difference considered significant.

[icu] Note: This can return QUATERNARY strength, which is not supported by the JDK version.

See the Collator class description for more details.

Returns:: this Collator's current strength property.
See Also:: setStrength(int), PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, QUATERNARY, IDENTICAL
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

getDecomposition

public int getDecomposition()

Returns the decomposition mode of this Collator. The decomposition mode determines how Unicode composed characters are handled.

See the Collator class description for more details.

Returns:: the decomposition mode
See Also:: setDecomposition(int), NO_DECOMPOSITION, CANONICAL_DECOMPOSITION
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

equals

public boolean equals(String source,
                      String target)

Compares the equality of two text Strings using this Collator's rules, strength and decomposition mode. Convenience method.

Parameters:: source - the source string to be compared.; target - the target string to be compared.
Returns:: true if the strings are equal according to the collation rules, otherwise false.
Throws:: NullPointerException - thrown if either arguments is null.
See Also:: compare(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

getTailoredSet

public UnicodeSet getTailoredSet()

[icu] Returns a UnicodeSet that contains all the characters and sequences tailored in this collator.

Returns:: a pointer to a UnicodeSet object containing all the code points and sequences that may sort differently than in the UCA.
Status:: Stable ICU 2.4.

compare

public abstract int compare(String source,
                            String target)

Compares the source text String to the target text String according to this Collator's rules, strength and decomposition mode. Returns an integer less than, equal to or greater than zero depending on whether the source String is less than, equal to or greater than the target String. See the Collator class description for an example of use.

Parameters:: source - the source String.; target - the target String.
Returns:: Returns an integer value. Value is less than zero if source is less than target, value is zero if source and target are equal, value is greater than zero if source is greater than target.
Throws:: NullPointerException - thrown if either argument is null.
See Also:: CollationKey, getCollationKey(java.lang.String)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

compare

public int compare(Object source,
                   Object target)

Compares the source Object to the target Object.

Specified by:: compare in interface Comparator<Object>

Parameters:: source - the source Object.; target - the target Object.
Returns:: Returns an integer value. Value is less than zero if source is less than target, value is zero if source and target are equal, value is greater than zero if source is greater than target.
Throws:: ClassCastException - thrown if either arguments cannot be cast to String.
Status:: Stable ICU 4.2.

getCollationKey

public abstract CollationKey getCollationKey(String source)

Transforms the String into a CollationKey suitable for efficient repeated comparison. The resulting key depends on the collator's rules, strength and decomposition mode.

See the CollationKey class documentation for more information.

Parameters:: source - the string to be transformed into a CollationKey.
Returns:: the CollationKey for the given String based on this Collator's collation rules. If the source String is null, a null CollationKey is returned.
See Also:: CollationKey, compare(String, String), getRawCollationKey(java.lang.String, com.ibm.icu.text.RawCollationKey)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

getRawCollationKey

public abstract RawCollationKey getRawCollationKey(String source,
                                                   RawCollationKey key)

[icu] Returns the simpler form of a CollationKey for the String source following the rules of this Collator and stores the result into the user provided argument key. If key has a internal byte array of length that's too small for the result, the internal byte array will be grown to the exact required size.

Parameters:: source - the text String to be transformed into a RawCollationKey
Returns:: If key is null, a new instance of RawCollationKey will be created and returned, otherwise the user provided key will be returned.
See Also:: compare(String, String), getCollationKey(java.lang.String), RawCollationKey
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

setVariableTop

public abstract int setVariableTop(String varTop)

[icu] Variable top is a two byte primary value which causes all the codepoints with primary values that are less or equal than the variable top to be shifted when alternate handling is set to SHIFTED.

Sets the variable top to a collation element value of a string supplied.

Parameters:: varTop - one or more (if contraction) characters to which the variable top should be set
Returns:: a int value containing the value of the variable top in upper 16 bits. Lower 16 bits are undefined.
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - is thrown if varTop argument is not a valid variable top element. A variable top element is invalid when it is a contraction that does not exist in the Collation order or when the PRIMARY strength collation element for the variable top has more than two bytes
See Also:: getVariableTop(), RuleBasedCollator.setAlternateHandlingShifted(boolean)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getVariableTop

public abstract int getVariableTop()

[icu] Returns the variable top value of a Collator. Lower 16 bits are undefined and should be ignored.

Returns:: the variable top value of a Collator.
See Also:: setVariableTop(java.lang.String)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

setVariableTop

public abstract void setVariableTop(int varTop)

[icu] Sets the variable top to a collation element value supplied. Variable top is set to the upper 16 bits. Lower 16 bits are ignored.

Parameters:: varTop - Collation element value, as returned by setVariableTop or getVariableTop
See Also:: getVariableTop(), setVariableTop(java.lang.String)
Status:: Stable ICU 2.6.

getVersion

public abstract VersionInfo getVersion()

[icu] Returns the version of this collator object.

Returns:: the version object associated with this collator
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

getUCAVersion

public abstract VersionInfo getUCAVersion()

[icu] Returns the UCA version of this collator object.

Returns:: the version object associated with this collator
Status:: Stable ICU 2.8.

getReorderCodes

public int[] getReorderCodes()

Deprecated. This API is ICU internal only.

Retrieve the reordering codes for this collator. These reordering codes are a combination of UScript and ReorderCodes.

Returns:: the reordering codes for this collator if they have been set, null otherwise.
See Also:: setReorderCodes(int...)
Status:: Internal. This API is ICU internal only.

getLocale

public final ULocale getLocale(ULocale.Type type)

[icu] Returns the locale that was used to create this object, or null. This may may differ from the locale requested at the time of this object's creation. For example, if an object is created for locale en_US_CALIFORNIA, the actual data may be drawn from en (the actual locale), and en_US may be the most specific locale that exists (the valid locale).

Note: This method will be implemented in ICU 3.0; ICU 2.8 contains a partial preview implementation. The * actual locale is returned correctly, but the valid locale is not, in most cases.

Parameters:: type - type of information requested, either ULocale.VALID_LOCALE or ULocale.ACTUAL_LOCALE.
Returns:: the information specified by type, or null if this object was not constructed from locale data.
See Also:: ULocale, ULocale.VALID_LOCALE, ULocale.ACTUAL_LOCALE
Status:: Draft ICU 2.8 (retain).

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