Collections Sort(List, Comparator

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Sorting Java objects using multiple keys

I can't find any example of using this method, all examples give the second parameter "null". I heard that this method used for sorting classes according to more than one criterion but no example where found.

public class Student implements Comparable<Student> {
String name;
int age;

public Student(String name, int age) {
    this.name = name;
    this.age = age;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
    return name + ":" + age;
}

@Override
public int compareTo(Student o) {
    Integer myAge = age;
    Integer oAge = o.age;
    return myAge.compareTo(oAge);
}

}

for this class if i want to sort a list of Student according to their names & ages how can i use the method Collections sort(List,Comparator)

Accepted Answer

Building upon your existing Student class, this is how I usually do it, especially if I need more than one comparator.

public class Student implements Comparable<Student> {

    String name;
    int age;

    public Student(String name, int age) {
       this.name = name;
       this.age = age;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return name + ":" + age;
    }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(Student o) {
        return Comparators.NAME.compare(this, o);
    }


    public static class Comparators {

        public static Comparator<Student> NAME = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                return o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
            }
        };
        public static Comparator<Student> AGE = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                return o1.age - o2.age;
            }
        };
        public static Comparator<Student> NAMEANDAGE = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                int i = o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
                if (i == 0) {
                    i = o1.age - o2.age;
                }
                return i;
            }
        };
    }
}

Usage:

List<Student> studentList = new LinkedList<>();
Collections.sort(studentList, Student.Comparators.AGE);

EDIT

Since the release of Java 8 the inner class Comparators may be greatly simplified using lambdas. Java 8 also introduces a new method for the Comparator object thenComparing, which removes the need for doing manual checking of each comparator when nesting them. Below is the Java 8 implementation of the Student.Comparators class with these changes taken into account.

public static class Comparators {
    public static final Comparator<Student> NAME = (Student o1, Student o2) -> o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
    public static final Comparator<Student> AGE = (Student o1, Student o2) -> Integer.compare(o1.age, o2.age);
    public static final Comparator<Student> NAMEANDAGE = (Student o1, Student o2) -> NAME.thenComparing(AGE).compare(o1, o2);
}

Answer 2

This might be simplest way -

Collections.sort(listOfStudent,new Comparator<Student>(){
                     public int compare(Student s1,Student s2){
                           // Write your logic here.
                     }});

Using Java 8(lambda expression) -

listOfStudent.sort((s1, s2) -> s1.age - s2.age);

Answer 3

You probably want something like this:

Collections.sort(students, new Comparator<Student>() {
                     public int compare(Student s1, Student s2) {
                           if(s1.getName() != null && s2.getName() != null && s1.getName().comareTo(s1.getName()) != 0) {
                               return s1.getName().compareTo(s2.getName());
                           } else {
                             return s1.getAge().compareTo(s2.getAge());
                          }
                      }
);

This sorts the students first by name. If a name is missing, or two students have the same name, they are sorted by their age.

Answer 4

To use Collections sort(List,Comparator) , you need to create a class that implements Comparator Interface, and code for the compare() in it, through Comparator Interface

You can do something like this:

class StudentComparator implements Comparator
{
    public int compare (Student s1 Student s2)
    {
        // code to compare 2 students
    }
}

To sort do this:

 Collections.sort(List,new StudentComparator())

Collections Sort(List, Comparator

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4 Answers

David Miller