How do I sort string of numbers in ascending order?

In the following example we are going to sort a string containing the following numbers "2, 5, 9, 1, 10, 7, 4, 8" in ascending order, so we will get the result of "1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10".

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.Arrays;

public class SortStringNumber {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // We have some string numbers separated by comma. First we
        // need to split it, so we can get each individual number.
        String data = "2, 5, 9, 1, 10, 7, 4, 8";
        String[] numbers = data.split(",");

        // Convert the string numbers into Integer and placed it into
        // an array of Integer.
        Integer[] intValues = new Integer[numbers.length];
        for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
            intValues[i] = Integer.parseInt(numbers[i].trim());
        }

        // Sort the number in ascending order using the
        // Arrays.sort() method.
        Arrays.sort(intValues);

        // Convert back the sorted number into string using the
        // StringBuilder object. Prints the sorted string numbers.
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < intValues.length; i++) {
            Integer intValue = intValues[i];
            builder.append(intValue);
            if (i < intValues.length - 1) {
                builder.append(", ");
            }
        }
        System.out.println("Before = " + data);
        System.out.println("After  = " + builder);
    }
}

When we run the program we will get the following output:

Before = 2, 5, 9, 1, 10, 7, 4, 8
After  = 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10

How do I format a message that contains number information?

This example show you how to use java.text.MessageFormat class to format a message that contains numbers.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.MessageFormat;
import java.util.Locale;

public class MessageFormatNumber {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // Set the Locale for the MessageFormat.
        Locale.setDefault(Locale.US);

        // Use the default formatting for number.
        String message = MessageFormat.format("This is a {0} and {1} numbers",
                10, 75);
        System.out.println(message);

        // This line has the same format as above.
        message = MessageFormat.format("This is a {0,number} and {1,number} " +
                "numbers", 10, 75);
        System.out.println(message);

        // Format a number with 2 decimal digits.
        message = MessageFormat.format("This is a formatted {0, number,#.##} " +
                "and {1, number,#.##} numbers", 25.7575, 75.2525);
        System.out.println(message);

        // Format a number as currency.
        message = MessageFormat.format("This is a formatted currency " +
                        "{0,number,currency} and {1,number,currency} numbers",
                25.7575, 25.7575);
        System.out.println(message);

        // Format numbers in percentage.
        message = MessageFormat.format("This is a formatted percentage " +
                "{0,number,percent} and {1,number,percent} numbers", 0.10, 0.75);
        System.out.println(message);
    }
}

The result of the program are the following lines:

This is a 10 and 75 numbers
This is a 10 and 75 numbers
This is a formatted 25.76 and 75.25 numbers
This is a formatted currency $25.76 and $25.76 numbers
This is a formatted percentage 10% and 75% numbers

How do I decode string to integer?

The static Integer.decode() method can be used to convert a string representation of a number into an Integer object. Under the cover this method call the Integer.valueOf(String s, int radix).

The string can start with the optional negative sign followed with radix specified such as 0x, 0X, # for hexadecimal value, 0 (zero) for octal number.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class IntegerDecode {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String decimal = "10"; // Decimal
        String hex = "0XFF"; // Hex
        String octal = "077"; // Octal

        Integer number = Integer.decode(decimal);
        System.out.println("String [" + decimal + "] = " + number);

        number = Integer.decode(hex);
        System.out.println("String [" + hex + "] = " + number);

        number = Integer.decode(octal);
        System.out.println("String [" + octal + "] = " + number);
    }
}

The result of the code snippet above:

String [10] = 10
String [0XFF] = 255
String [077] = 63

How do I generate a random array of numbers?

Using java.util.Random class we can create random data such as boolean, integer, floats, double. First you’ll need to create an instance of the Random class. This class has some next***() methods that can randomly create the data.

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Random;

public class RandomDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Random r = new Random();

        // generate some random boolean values
        boolean[] booleans = new boolean[10];
        for (int i = 0; i < booleans.length; i++) {
            booleans[i] = r.nextBoolean();
        }
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(booleans));

        // generate a uniformly distributed int random numbers
        int[] integers = new int[10];
        for (int i = 0; i < integers.length; i++) {
            integers[i] = r.nextInt();
        }
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(integers));

        // generate a uniformly distributed float random numbers
        float[] floats = new float[10];
        for (int i = 0; i < floats.length; i++) {
            floats[i] = r.nextFloat();
        }
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(floats));

        // generate a Gaussian normally distributed random numbers
        double[] doubles = new double[10];
        for (int i = 0; i < doubles.length; i++) {
            doubles[i] = r.nextGaussian();
        }
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(doubles));
    }
}

The result of the code snippet above are:

[true, true, false, true, false, true, true, false, false, true]
[34195704, 1462972230, -475641915, -1531017612, 332184915, 1555901473, -276309016, 1433394157, -451221924, -1178823255]
[0.3040716, 0.28814012, 0.34028566, 0.021003246, 0.49158317, 0.37954164, 0.5403056, 0.54187375, 0.7157934, 0.5964742]
[1.051268591002577, -1.1283332046139989, 0.8351395528722437, -0.24598168031182968, 0.7123515366756693, -0.9661681996105319, -1.6107009669125059, 0.43994917963255387, 1.1309345726165914, 1.2321618489324313]

For an example to create random number using the Math.random() method see How do I create random number?.

How do I parse a number for a locale?

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.util.Locale;
import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;

public class LocaleNumberParse {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            // In this example we are trying to parse a number string in a
            // defined format. Basically we want to covert the string for a
            // locale into a correct number value.
            Number number =
                NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(Locale.JAPAN).parse("25,000.75");

            // Just do some stuff with the number from the parse process
            if (number instanceof Long) {
                System.out.println("This number is instanceof Long and the " +
                    "value is: " + number.longValue());
            } else if (number instanceof Double) {
                System.out.println("This number is instanceof Double and the " +
                    "value is: " + number.doubleValue());
            }
        } catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

The code snippet print out the following result:

This number is instanceof Double and the value is: 25000.75