sorting - How to sort Properties in java?

Question

I have a Properties object and sometimes I need to add other Properties to it.

Properties myBasicProps = this.getClass.getResourceAsStream(MY_PROPS_PATH);
...
Properties otherProps = new Properties();
otherProps.load(new StringReader(tempPropsString)); //tempPropsString contains my temporary properties
myBasicProps.putAll(otherProps);

I want to sort myBasicProps after this. I don't want to get all keys and values, sort them with Collections.sort() and then put it all to a new object. Is there a better way?

Answer 1

No, java.util.Properties extends java.util.Hashtable which doesn't define a predictable sort order for keys or values.

You could try dumping all values into something like java.util.TreeMap, which will impose a natural ordering on your keys.