How to sort by two fields in Java?

Question

I have array of objects person (int age; String name;).

How can I sort this array alphabetically by name and then by age?

Which algorithm would

Answer 1

You can do like this:

List<User> users = Lists.newArrayList(
  new User("Pedro", 12), 
  new User("Maria", 10), 
  new User("Rafael",12)
);

users.sort(
  Comparator.comparing(User::getName).thenComparing(User::getAge)
);

Answer 2

Arrays.sort(persons, new PersonComparator());



import java.util.Comparator;

public class PersonComparator implements Comparator<? extends Person> {

    @Override
    public int compare(Person o1, Person o2) {
        if(null == o1 || null == o2  || null == o1.getName() || null== o2.getName() ){
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }else{
            int nameComparisonResult = o1.getName().compareTo(o2.getName());
            if(0 == nameComparisonResult){
                return o1.getAge()-o2.getAge();
            }else{
                return nameComparisonResult;
            }
        }
    }
}


class Person{
    int age; String name;

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

}

Updated version:

public class PersonComparator implements Comparator<? extends Person> {

   @Override
   public int compare(Person o1, Person o2) {

      int nameComparisonResult = o1.getName().compareToIgnoreCase(o2.getName());
      return 0 == nameComparisonResult?o1.getAge()-o2.getAge():nameComparisonResult;

   }
 }

Answer 3

Using the Java 8 Streams approach...

//Creates and sorts a stream (does not sort the original list)       
persons.stream().sorted(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName).thenComparing(Person::getAge));

And the Java 8 Lambda approach...

//Sorts the original list Lambda style
persons.sort((p1, p2) -> {
        if (p1.getName().compareTo(p2.getName()) == 0) {
            return p1.getAge().compareTo(p2.getAge());
        } else {
            return p1.getName().compareTo(p2.getName());
        } 
    });

Lastly...

//This is similar SYNTAX to the Streams above, but it sorts the original list!!
persons.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName).thenComparing(Person::getAge));

Answer 4

Have your person class implement Comparable<Person> and then implement the compareTo method, for instance:

public int compareTo(Person o) {
    int result = name.compareToIgnoreCase(o.name);
    if(result==0) {
        return Integer.valueOf(age).compareTo(o.age);
    }
    else {
        return result;
    }
}

That will sort first by name (case insensitively) and then by age. You can then run Arrays.sort() or Collections.sort() on the collection or array of Person objects.

Answer 5

Or you can exploit the fact that Collections.sort() (or Arrays.sort()) is stable (it doesn't reorder elements that are equal) and use a Comparator to sort by age first and then another one to sort by name.

In this specific case this isn't a very good idea but if you have to be able to change the sort order in runtime, it might be useful.

Answer 6

Use Comparator and then put objects into Collection, then Collections.sort();

class Person {

    String fname;
    String lname;
    int age;

    public Person() {
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getFname() {
        return fname;
    }

    public void setFname(String fname) {
        this.fname = fname;
    }

    public String getLname() {
        return lname;
    }

    public void setLname(String lname) {
        this.lname = lname;
    }

    public Person(String fname, String lname, int age) {
        this.fname = fname;
        this.lname = lname;
        this.age = age;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return fname + "," + lname + "," + age;
    }
}

public class Main{

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Person> persons = new java.util.ArrayList<Person>();
        persons.add(new Person("abc3", "def3", 10));
        persons.add(new Person("abc2", "def2", 32));
        persons.add(new Person("abc1", "def1", 65));
        persons.add(new Person("abc4", "def4", 10));
        System.out.println(persons);
        Collections.sort(persons, new Comparator<Person>() {

            @Override
            public int compare(Person t, Person t1) {
                return t.getAge() - t1.getAge();
            }
        });
        System.out.println(persons);

    }
}