Hashtable sort by key

[mickey hendrix]

hello to everybody
I have a problem sorting an Hashtable by the key:this is a String like an ip like "120.3.5.3" and the object is generic...anything:
Example:

Hashtable hash = new Hashtable;
hash.put("12.5.8.10",myObject);
hash.put("12.7.8.10",myObject);
hash.put("12.5.9.10",myObject);
hash.put("12.24.8.10",myObject);
hash.put("12.5.8.11",myObject);

Now that I have valorized the items I need to order the hashtable in ascending mode by the key....
How can I do?Ot I have to use another Struct ( like Set or Map ) in witch put the data?
thanks for help

[Paul Clapham]

TreeMap is a sorted Map. From its API documentation:

"This class guarantees that the map will be in ascending key order, sorted according to the natural order for the key's class (see Comparable)"

The keys need to implement Comparable, so since your keys are Strings, they do that. No problem there.

[Jeff Albertson]

Yes, you could have used TreeMap from the get-go. Or you could copy your
hashtable into a TreeMap if other code is providing the hash table

Map map = new TreeMap(hash);

And if you are stuck with a hash table, but all you need to do is iterate
through it, copy the keys into an array and sort it:

import java.util.*;
 
public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Hashtable hash = new Hashtable();
        hash.put("alpha", "a");
        hash.put("beta", "b");
        hash.put("gamma", "g");
 
        String[] keys = (String[]) hash.keySet().toArray(new String[0]);
        Arrays.sort(keys);
        for(String key : keys) {
            System.out.println(key + " : " + hash.get(key));
        }
    }
}