They appear to have some similar meaning. How to differentiate between them? They follow pattern of "In order to do X..." or "To do X...". I know they are not interchangeable at least. Any help?

ふんんんん。誰も分かっていない事を聞いたようですね。変です！　誰も知らないか　誰もわざわざ答えたくないか。　初めてです。

Try here:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?t...9&page=194

Might have better luck.

Generally speaking, you'll encounter ために after punctual verbs related to actions, such as 食べる, whereas ように frequently appears after verbs related to a state, such as 分かる. Similarly, potential verb forms prefer ように as they tell us that someone possesses an ability to carry out a process rather than that any action is undertaken. Verbs in their negative forms are often followed by ように and nouns are always followed by のために when the intended meaning is 'for the sake of', 'in order to'.

Thus:
(1) 日本語を話すために日本に来た。
(2) 日本語が話せるように勉強しています。
(3) 日本語の勉強のために芥川龍之介を読んでいます。

Note that the ように in a sentence like "鳥のように空を飛ぶ。" has a function that is different from the ために in (3) above.


This explanation is somewhat of a simplification and should not be taken as a comprehensive description of the differences between the two forms but it should suffice for everyday usage of Japanese. The subtle differences between ように and ために is the sort of thing that you will probably pick up along the way and I find myself using the correct forms most of the times without stopping to think.