Swords used to inflict more damage than bows - often significantly more depending on material, and even a wooden sword was on par with an arrow, but since the Beta 1.8 update, there are no (non-enchanted) swords that match a full-charged arrow (with a non-critical hit).
The sword is a short range weapon - despite its appearance, it grants no range advantage over any other tool since Beta 1.9, including bare hands.