How to use Comparator in Java to sort

Question

I learned how to use the comparable but I\'m having difficulty with the Comparator. I am having a error in my code:

Exception in thread \"main\" java.lang.C         


        

Answer 1

Here's an example of a Comparator that will work for any zero arg method that returns a Comparable. Does something like this exist in a jdk or library?

import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.Comparator;

public class NamedMethodComparator implements Comparator<Object> {

    //
    // instance variables
    //

    private String methodName;

    private boolean isAsc;

    //
    // constructor
    //

    public NamedMethodComparator(String methodName, boolean isAsc) {
        this.methodName = methodName;
        this.isAsc = isAsc;
    }

    /**
     * Method to compare two objects using the method named in the constructor.
     */
    @Override
    public int compare(Object obj1, Object obj2) {
        Comparable comp1 = getValue(obj1, methodName);
        Comparable comp2 = getValue(obj2, methodName);
        if (isAsc) {
            return comp1.compareTo(comp2);
        } else {
            return comp2.compareTo(comp1);
        }
    }

    //
    // implementation
    //

    private Comparable getValue(Object obj, String methodName) {
        Method method = getMethod(obj, methodName);
        Comparable comp = getValue(obj, method);
        return comp;
    }

    private Method getMethod(Object obj, String methodName) {
        try {
            Class[] signature = {};
            Method method = obj.getClass().getMethod(methodName, signature);
            return method;
        } catch (Exception exp) {
            throw new RuntimeException(exp);
        }
    }

    private Comparable getValue(Object obj, Method method) {
        Object[] args = {};
        try {
            Object rtn = method.invoke(obj, args);
            Comparable comp = (Comparable) rtn;
            return comp;
        } catch (Exception exp) {
            throw new RuntimeException(exp);
        }
    }

}

Answer 2

public static Comparator<JobSet> JobEndTimeComparator = new Comparator<JobSet>() {
            public int compare(JobSet j1, JobSet j2) {
                int cost1 = j1.cost;
                int cost2 = j2.cost;
                return cost1-cost2;
            }
        };

Answer 3

Two corrections:

1. You have to make an ArrayList of People objects:

   ArrayList<People> preps = new ArrayList<People>(); 
   

2. After adding the objects to the preps, use:

   Collections.sort(preps, new CompareId());
   

Also, add a CompareId class as:

class CompareId implements Comparator {  
    public int compare(Object obj1, Object obj2) {  
        People t1 = (People)obj1;  
        People t2 = (People)obj2;  

        if (t1.marks > t2.marks)  
            return 1;   
        else  
            return -1;
    }  
}

Answer 4

You should use the overloaded sort(peps, new People()) method

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;

public class Test 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        List<People> peps = new ArrayList<>();

        peps.add(new People(123, "M", 14.25));
        peps.add(new People(234, "M", 6.21));
        peps.add(new People(362, "F", 9.23));
        peps.add(new People(111, "M", 65.99));
        peps.add(new People(535, "F", 9.23));

        Collections.sort(peps, new People().new ComparatorId());

        for (int i = 0; i < peps.size(); i++)
        {
            System.out.println(peps.get(i));
        }
    }
}

class People
{
       private int id;
       private String info;
       private double price;

       public People()
       {

       }

       public People(int newid, String newinfo, double newprice) {
           setid(newid);
           setinfo(newinfo);
           setprice(newprice);
       }

       public int getid() {
           return id;
       }

       public void setid(int id) {
           this.id = id;
       }

       public String getinfo() {
           return info;
       }

       public void setinfo(String info) {
           this.info = info;
       }

       public double getprice() {
           return price;
       }

       public void setprice(double price) {
           this.price = price;
       }

       class ComparatorId implements Comparator<People>
       {

        @Override
        public int compare(People obj1, People obj2) {
               Integer p1 = obj1.getid();
               Integer p2 = obj2.getid();

               if (p1 > p2) {
                   return 1;
               } else if (p1 < p2){
                   return -1;
               } else {
                   return 0;
               }
            }
       }
    }

Answer 5

Do not waste time implementing Sorting Algorithm by your own. Instead; use

Collections.sort() to sort data.

Answer 6

For the sake of completeness.

Using Java8

people.sort(Comparator.comparingInt(People::getId));

if you want in descending order

people.sort(Comparator.comparingInt(People::getId).reversed());