Sort date/time objects (latest first)

Question

I'm trying to order date objects by date/time (latest first) using code below. The ordering is not correct. I think the compareTo method needs to be implemented differently to achieve the required sorting ?

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


public class DateSorter {

    public static void main(String args[]){

        List<DateObject> list = new ArrayList<DateObject>();

        DateObject d1 = new DateObject("2012-12-05" , "11:21:19");
        list.add(d1);

        d1 = new DateObject("2012-12-05" , "11:20:19");
        list.add(d1);

        d1 = new DateObject("2012-12-05" , "11:20:19");
        list.add(d1);

        d1 = new DateObject("2012-12-04" , "10:20:19");
        list.add(d1);

        d1 = new DateObject("2010-12-07" , "13:20:19");
        list.add(d1);

        d1 = new DateObject("2012-12-05" , "11:20:19");
        list.add(d1);

        Collections.sort(list);

        for(DateObject d : list){
            System.out.println(d);
        }
    }

}

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateObject implements Comparable<Object> {

    private String date;
    private String time;

    public DateObject(String date, String time) {
        this.date = date;
        this.time = time;
    }

    public int compareTo(Object o) {

        DateFormat formatter;
        Date date1 = null;
        Date date2 = null;
        formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        try {
            date1 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);
            date2 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);
        } catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        catch(NullPointerException npe){
            System.out.println("Exception thrown "+npe.getMessage()+" date1 is "+date1+" date2 is "+date2);
        }

         return date1.compareTo(date2);

    }

    @Override
    public String toString(){       
        return this.date+" "+this.time;
    }

}

This is the output displayed :

2012-12-05 11:21:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-04 10:20:19
2010-12-07 13:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19

This output should be :

2010-12-07 13:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:21:19
2012-12-04 10:20:19

Update : when I modify the compareTo method to :

public int compareTo(Object o) {


    DateFormat formatter;
    Date date1 = null;
    Date date2 = null;  
    DateObject other = (DateObject) o;

    formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
    try {
        date1 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);
        date2 = (Date) formatter.parse(other.date + " " + other.time);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    catch(NullPointerException npe){
        System.out.println("Exception thrown "+npe.getMessage()+" date1 is "+date1+" date2 is "+date2);
    }

     return date1.compareTo(date2);

}

The output is :

2010-12-07 13:20:19
2012-12-04 10:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:21:19

Which is still incorrect as 2012-12-05 should appear before 2012-12-04

Answer 1

You are parsing the same date twice:

date1 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);
date2 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);

should probably be:

date1 = (Date) formatter.parse(this.date + " " + this.time);
DateObject other = (DateObject) o;
date2 = (Date) formatter.parse(other.date + " " + other.time);

and you should probably test that o is a DateObject and not null before trying to cast it and use it.

EDIT

Just tried your updated code using return date2.compareTo(date1); and I get:

2012-12-05 11:21:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-05 11:20:19
2012-12-04 10:20:19
2010-12-07 13:20:19

which is in descending order (note that the last date is in 2010).