Trouble Sorting an ArrayList of Strings
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6059509/sort-array-list-of-special-strings-by-date">sort array list of special strings, by date</a>  </p>
</blockquote>



<p>I have an ArrayList of Strings that read in from a file and the first part of each string is a date ex: 12/01/2012. When I use Collections.sort(); it sorts it fine within the year from oldest to newest, but when it gets to 01/01/2013 it throws that up on the top of the list with the oldest. How can I get it to use the year as part of the sort? I tried using Date, but it did the same. Each string has a lot of info I would like to keep in it and just sort it by the beginning. I see no need to post code since it's working and all I'm having trouble with is just sorting. I've searched on here for awhile and tried a few different sorting options to no avail. So I must be confused or forgetting something. If anyone has any ideas how to sort Strings with dates in the beginning please help! Thanks!</p>

<p>example string: "12/01/2012   34023843   Item Number"</p>
