title: compareTo() method is not overriding default method when using Comparable interface
body: <p>I am trying to overwrite the default compareTo() method in java by writing my own and using implements comparable, however it seems that java is still using the default method.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to sort an array of Strings by length that I get from a .dat file, however it keeps sorting it by alphabetic order instead.  I would appreciate it if someone could tell me what I am doing wrong as I cannot figure out why this does not work.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <pre><code>import static java.lang.System.*;
  import java.util.Arrays;
  
  public class Word implements Comparable
  {
  private String word;
  private String[] array;
  
  public Word()
  {
      word = "";
  }
  
  public Word(String s)
  {
      word = s;
  }
  
  public void setWord(String s)
  {
      word = s;
  }
  
  public int compareTo(String rhs)
  {
      String temp = (String)rhs;
      if(word.length() &gt; temp.length())
          return 1;
      else if(word.length() &lt; temp.length())
          return -1;
  
      return 0;
  }
  
  public void setSize(int size)
  {
      array = new String[size];
  }
  
  public void add(int spot, String other)
  {
      array[spot] = other;
  }
  
  public String[] sortByLength()
  {
      Arrays.sort(array);
      return array;
  }
  public String toString()
  {
      return Arrays.toString(array);
  }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here is the class that contains the main method</p>
  
  <pre><code>import java.io.File;
  import java.io.IOException;
  import java.util.Scanner;
  import java.util.Arrays;
  import static java.lang.System.*;
  
  public class Lab18d
  {
  public static void main( String args[] ) throws IOException
  {
      Scanner file = new Scanner(new File("lab18d.dat"));
  
      int size = file.nextInt();
      file.nextLine();
      Word test = new Word();
      test.setSize(size);
      String word = "";
  
      for(int i = 0; i &lt; size; i++)
      {
          word = file.next();
          test.setWord(word);
          test.add(i, word);
      }
      test.sortByLength();
      System.out.println(test);
  }
  }
  </code></pre>