By alphabetical-order I assume the order to be : A|a < B|b < C|c...
Hope this is what @Nick is(or was) looking for and the answer follows the above assumption.
I would suggest to have a class implement compare method of Comparator-interface as :
public int compare(Object o1, Object o2) {
return o1.toString().compareToIgnoreCase(o2.toString());
}
and from the calling method invoke the Arrays.sort method with custom Comparator as :
Arrays.sort(inputArray, customComparator);
Observed results:
input Array : "Vani","Kali", "Mohan","Soni","kuldeep","Arun"
output(Alphabetical-order) is :
Arun, Kali, kuldeep, Mohan, Soni, Vani
Output(Natural-order by executing Arrays.sort(inputArray) is :
Arun, Kali, Mohan, Soni, Vani, kuldeep
Thus in case of natural ordering, [Vani < kuldeep] which to my understanding of alphabetical-order is not the thing desired.
for more understanding of natural and alphabetical/lexical order visit discussion here