import Comparator;

        /**
         * Compares two objects by considering their string representations.
         * Does case-insensitive comparision.  Particularly useful for
         * comparing strings, but can also be used for other objects.
         *
         * @author Samuel A. Rebelsky
         * @version 1.1 of October 1999
         */
        public class StringComparator
          implements Comparator
        {
          /**
           * Determines if the string reperesentation of the first object 
           * is the same as the string representation of the second object.
           * Pre: The two objects are initialized and can be converted to strings.
           * Post: Returns true if they are equal and false otherwise.
           */
          public boolean equals(Object first, Object second)
          {
            String firstString = first.toString().toLowerCase();
            String secondString = second.toString().toLowerCase();
            return firstString.equals(secondString);
          } // equals(Object,Object)

          /* Determines if the string representation of the first object
           * is less than the string representation of the second object.
           * One string is "less than" another iff letters 0 through i-1
           * of the two strings are the same and either (i) letter i of the
           * first string is less than letter i of the second string or (ii)
           * the first string has only i letters and the second string has more
           * than i letters.
           */
          public boolean lessThan(Object first, Object second)
          {
            String firstString = first.toString().toLowerCase();
            String secondString = second.toString().toLowerCase();
            // The compareTo operator returns a negative value if
            // the first string precedes the second.
            return firstString.compareTo(secondString) < 0;
          } // lessThan(Object,Object)
        } // class StringComparator