Sorting an ArrayList of objects using a custom sorting order

Question

I am looking to implement a sort feature for my address book application.

I want to sort an ArrayList contactArray. Contact

Answer 1

BalusC and bguiz have already given very complete answers on how to use Java's built-in Comparators.

I just want to add that google-collections has an Ordering class which is more "powerful" than the standard Comparators. It might be worth checking out. You can do cool things such as compounding Orderings, reversing them, ordering depending on a function's result for your objects...

Here is a blog post that mentions some of its benefits.