How to use Comparator in Java to sort

Question

There are a couple of awkward things with your example class:

• it's called People while it has a price and info (more something for objects, not people);
• when naming a class as a plural of something, it suggests it is an abstraction of more than one thing.

Anyway, here's a demo of how to use a Comparator<T>:

public class ComparatorDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Person> people = Arrays.asList(
                new Person("Joe", 24),
                new Person("Pete", 18),
                new Person("Chris", 21)
        );
        Collections.sort(people, new LexicographicComparator());
        System.out.println(people);
        Collections.sort(people, new AgeComparator());
        System.out.println(people);
    }
}

class LexicographicComparator implements Comparator<Person> {
    @Override
    public int compare(Person a, Person b) {
        return a.name.compareToIgnoreCase(b.name);
    }
}

class AgeComparator implements Comparator<Person> {
    @Override
    public int compare(Person a, Person b) {
        return a.age < b.age ? -1 : a.age == b.age ? 0 : 1;
    }
}

class Person {

    String name;
    int age;

    Person(String n, int a) {
        name = n;
        age = a;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return String.format("{name=%s, age=%d}", name, age);
    }
}

EDIT

And an equivalent Java 8 demo would look like this:

public class ComparatorDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Person> people = Arrays.asList(
                new Person("Joe", 24),
                new Person("Pete", 18),
                new Person("Chris", 21)
        );
        Collections.sort(people, (a, b) -> a.name.compareToIgnoreCase(b.name));
        System.out.println(people);
        Collections.sort(people, (a, b) -> a.age < b.age ? -1 : a.age == b.age ? 0 : 1);
        System.out.println(people);
    }
}

Here's a super short template to do the sorting right away :

Collections.sort(people,new Comparator<Person>(){
   @Override
   public int compare(final Person lhs,Person rhs) {
     //TODO return 1 if rhs should be before lhs 
     //     return -1 if lhs should be before rhs
     //     return 0 otherwise (meaning the order stays the same)
     }
 });

if it's hard to remember, try to just remember that it's similar (in terms of the sign of the number) to:

 lhs-rhs 

That's in case you want to sort in ascending order : from smallest number to largest number.

Use People implements Comparable<People> instead; this defines the natural ordering for People.

A Comparator<People> can also be defined in addition, but People implements Comparator<People> is not the right way of doing things.

The two overloads for Collections.sort are different:

• <T extends Comparable<? super T>> void sort(List<T> list)
  • Sorts Comparable objects using their natural ordering
• <T> void sort(List<T> list, Comparator<? super T> c)
  • Sorts whatever using a compatible Comparator

You're confusing the two by trying to sort a Comparator (which is again why it doesn't make sense that Person implements Comparator<Person>). Again, to use Collections.sort, you need one of these to be true:

• The type must be Comparable (use the 1-arg sort)
• A Comparator for the type must be provided (use the 2-args sort)

Related questions

• When to use Comparable vs Comparator
• Sorting an ArrayList of Contacts

---

Also, do not use raw types in new code. Raw types are unsafe, and it's provided only for compatibility.

That is, instead of this:

ArrayList peps = new ArrayList(); // BAD!!! No generic safety!

you should've used the typesafe generic declaration like this:

List<People> peps = new ArrayList<People>(); // GOOD!!!

You will then find that your code doesn't even compile!! That would be a good thing, because there IS something wrong with the code (Person does not implements Comparable<Person>), but because you used raw type, the compiler didn't check for this, and instead you get a ClassCastException at run-time!!!

This should convince you to always use typesafe generic types in new code. Always.

See also

• What is a raw type and why shouldn't we use it?

For the sake of completeness, here's a simple one-liner compare method:

Collections.sort(people, new Comparator<Person>() {
    @Override
    public int compare(Person lhs, Person rhs) {  
        return Integer.signum(lhs.getId() - rhs.getId());  
    }
});

Java 8 added a new way of making Comparators that reduces the amount of code you have to write, Comparator.comparing. Also check out Comparator.reversed

Here's a sample

import org.junit.Test;

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

import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;

public class ComparatorTest {

    @Test
    public void test() {
        List<Person> peopleList = new ArrayList<>();
        peopleList.add(new Person("A", 1000));
        peopleList.add(new Person("B", 1));
        peopleList.add(new Person("C", 50));
        peopleList.add(new Person("Z", 500));
        //sort by name, ascending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getName().equals("A"));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getName().equals("Z"));
        //sort by name, descending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName).reversed());
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getName().equals("Z"));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getName().equals("A"));
        //sort by age, ascending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getAge));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getAge() == 1);
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getAge() == 1000);
        //sort by age, descending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getAge).reversed());
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getAge() == 1000);
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getAge() == 1);
    }

    class Person {

        String name;
        int age;

        Person(String n, int a) {
            name = n;
            age = a;
        }

        public String getName() {
            return name;
        }

        public int getAge() {
            return age;
        }

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

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



}

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());