diff --git a/CDLTest.java b/CDLTest.java
index a12a911..28320dd 100644
--- a/CDLTest.java
+++ b/CDLTest.java
@@ -3,14 +3,23 @@ package org.json.junit;
 import static org.junit.Assert.*;
 
 import java.io.*;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.TreeMap;
 
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
 import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;
+import org.json.JSONException;
 import org.json.JSONObject;
 import org.json.JSONArray;
 import org.json.CDL;
 
+
 /**
  * Tests for {@link CDL}.
  * CDL provides an application level API, it is not actually used by the
@@ -26,36 +35,59 @@ public class CDLTest {
     /**
      * Compares a JSON array to the original string. The top row of the
      * string contains the JSONObject keys and the remaining rows contain
-     * the values. The JSONObject rows are unordered and may differ between
-     * rows. 
+     * the values. The JSONObject in each JSONArray row is expected to have
+     * an entry corresponding to each key/value pair in the string. 
+     * Each JSONObject row is unordered in its own way.
      * @param jsonArray the JSONArray which was created from the string
      * @param str the string which was used to create the JSONArray
-     * @return true if equal, otherwise false
+     * @return null if equal, otherwise error description
      */
-    public boolean compareJSONArrayToString(JSONArray jsonArray, String str) {
-        boolean result = true;
+    public String compareJSONArrayToString(JSONArray jsonArray, String str) {
         int rows = jsonArray.length();
         StringReader sr = new StringReader(str);
         BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(sr);
         try {
+            // first line contains the keys to the JSONObject array entries
             String columnNames = reader.readLine();
             String[] keys = columnNames.split(",");
+            /**
+             * Each line contains the values for the corresponding
+             * JSONObject array entry
+             */
             for (int i = 0; i < rows; ++i) {
                 String row = reader.readLine();
                 String[] values = row.split(",");
-                JSONObject jsonObject = jsonArray.getJSONObject(i);
-                if (keys.length != jsonObject.length()) {
-                    break;
+                // need a value for every key to proceed
+                if (keys.length != values.length) {
+                    return("row: " +i+ " key and value counts do not match");
                 }
-                int colIndex = 0;
-                for (String key: keys) {
-                    
-                    Object obj = jsonObject.get(key);
-                    
+                JSONObject jsonObject = jsonArray.getJSONObject(i);
+                // need a key for every JSONObject entry to proceed
+                if (keys.length != jsonObject.length()) {
+                    return("row: " +i+ " key and jsonObject counts do not match");
+                }
+                /**
+                 * convert string entries into a natural order map. Trim the
+                 * keys and values for tokener compatibility
+                 */
+                Map<String, String> strMap = new TreeMap<String, String>();
+                for (int j = 0; j < keys.length; ++j) {
+                    strMap.put(keys[j].trim(), values[j].trim());
+                }
+                // put the JSONObjet key/value pairs in natural key order
+                Iterator<String> keyIt = jsonObject.keys();
+                Map<String, String> jsonObjectMap = new TreeMap<String, String>();
+                while (keyIt.hasNext()) {
+                    String key = keyIt.next();
+                    jsonObjectMap.put(key, jsonObject.get(key).toString());
+                }
+                if (!strMap.equals(jsonObjectMap)) {
+                    return("row: " +i+ "string does not match jsonObject");
                 }
             }
-        } catch (IOException ignore) {}
-        return result;
+        } catch (IOException ignore) {
+        } catch (JSONException ignore) {}
+        return null;
     }
     
     @Test
@@ -69,8 +101,11 @@ public class CDLTest {
                 "val1, val2, val3, val4, val5, val6, val7\n" +
                 "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7\n");
         JSONArray jsonArray = CDL.toJSONArray(lines);
-        assertTrue("CDL should convert string to JSONArray correctly",
-                compareJSONArrayToString(jsonArray, lines));
+        String resultStr = compareJSONArrayToString(jsonArray, lines);
+        if (resultStr != null) {
+            assertTrue("CDL should convert string to JSONArray correctly: " +
+                resultStr, false);
+        }
     }
 
 }
\ No newline at end of file