String implements Comparable, and that is what natural ordering is in Java (comparing using the comparable interface). You can put the strings in a TreeSet or sort using the Collections or Arrays classes.
However, in your case you don't want "natural ordering" you really want a custom comparator, which you can then use in the Collections.sort method or the Arrays.sort method that takes a comparator.
In terms of the specific logic you are looking for implementing within the comparator, (numbers separated by dots) I'm not aware of any existing standard implementations of that, but as you said, it is not a hard problem.
EDIT: In your comment, your link gets you here, which does a decent job if you don't mind the fact that it is case sensitive. Here is that code modified to allow you to pass in the String.CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER:
/*
* The Alphanum Algorithm is an improved sorting algorithm for strings
* containing numbers. Instead of sorting numbers in ASCII order like
* a standard sort, this algorithm sorts numbers in numeric order.
*
* The Alphanum Algorithm is discussed at http://www.DaveKoelle.com
*
*
* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
* version 2.1 of the License, or any later version.
*
* This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
* Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*
*/
import java.util.Comparator;
/**
* This is an updated version with enhancements made by Daniel Migowski,
* Andre Bogus, and David Koelle
*
* To convert to use Templates (Java 1.5+):
* - Change "implements Comparator" to "implements Comparator<String>"
* - Change "compare(Object o1, Object o2)" to "compare(String s1, String s2)"
* - Remove the type checking and casting in compare().
*
* To use this class:
* Use the static "sort" method from the java.util.Collections class:
* Collections.sort(your list, new AlphanumComparator());
*/
public class AlphanumComparator implements Comparator<String>
{
private Comparator<String> comparator = new NaturalComparator();
public AlphanumComparator(Comparator<String> comparator) {
this.comparator = comparator;
}
public AlphanumComparator() {
}
private final boolean isDigit(char ch)
{
return ch >= 48 && ch <= 57;
}
/** Length of string is passed in for improved efficiency (only need to calculate it once) **/
private final String getChunk(String s, int slength, int marker)
{
StringBuilder chunk = new StringBuilder();
char c = s.charAt(marker);
chunk.append(c);
marker++;
if (isDigit(c))
{
while (marker < slength)
{
c = s.charAt(marker);
if (!isDigit(c))
break;
chunk.append(c);
marker++;
}
} else
{
while (marker < slength)
{
c = s.charAt(marker);
if (isDigit(c))
break;
chunk.append(c);
marker++;
}
}
return chunk.toString();
}
public int compare(String s1, String s2)
{
int thisMarker = 0;
int thatMarker = 0;
int s1Length = s1.length();
int s2Length = s2.length();
while (thisMarker < s1Length && thatMarker < s2Length)
{
String thisChunk = getChunk(s1, s1Length, thisMarker);
thisMarker += thisChunk.length();
String thatChunk = getChunk(s2, s2Length, thatMarker);
thatMarker += thatChunk.length();
// If both chunks contain numeric characters, sort them numerically
int result = 0;
if (isDigit(thisChunk.charAt(0)) && isDigit(thatChunk.charAt(0)))
{
// Simple chunk comparison by length.
int thisChunkLength = thisChunk.length();
result = thisChunkLength - thatChunk.length();
// If equal, the first different number counts
if (result == 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < thisChunkLength; i++)
{
result = thisChunk.charAt(i) - thatChunk.charAt(i);
if (result != 0)
{
return result;
}
}
}
} else
{
result = comparator.compare(thisChunk, thatChunk);
}
if (result != 0)
return result;
}
return s1Length - s2Length;
}
private static class NaturalComparator implements Comparator<String> {
public int compare(String o1, String o2) {
return o1.compareTo(o2);
}
}
}