Sort TableView by certain column Javafx

Question

I'm trying to sort a TableView table by a certain column. When I display the table, it's shown but from what I'm finding on here and other sites it's just confusing me more and more.

here is the tableview code

public TableView<Animal> animalLostLocation(ArrayList<Animal> list)
    {

        TableColumn<Animal, String> atypeColumn = new TableColumn<>("Animal Type");
        atypeColumn.setMinWidth(200);
        atypeColumn.setSortable(false);
        atypeColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("aType"));

        TableColumn<Animal, String> descriptionColumn = new TableColumn<>("Description");
        descriptionColumn.setMinWidth(200);
        descriptionColumn.setSortable(false);
        descriptionColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("description"));

        TableColumn<Animal, String> breedColumn = new TableColumn<>("Breed");
        breedColumn.setMinWidth(80);
        breedColumn.setSortable(false);
        breedColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("breed"));

        TableColumn<Animal, String> nameColumn = new TableColumn<>("Name");
        nameColumn.setMinWidth(200);
        nameColumn.setSortable(false);
        nameColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("name"));

        TableColumn<Animal, Catergory> catColumn = new TableColumn<>("Category");
        catColumn.setMinWidth(200);
        breedColumn.setSortable(false);
        catColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("category"));

        TableColumn<Animal, Integer > ageColumn = new TableColumn<>("Age");
        ageColumn.setMinWidth(50);
        ageColumn.setSortable(false);
        ageColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("age"));

        TableColumn<Animal, Integer > idColumn = new TableColumn<>("ID");
        idColumn.setMinWidth(50);
        idColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("ID"));

        TableColumn<Animal, Boolean > genColumn = new TableColumn<>("Male");
        genColumn.setMinWidth(50);
        genColumn.setSortable(false);
        genColumn.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<>("gender"));

        table = new TableView<Animal>();

        table.setItems(getAnimal(list));

        table.getColumns().addAll(genColumn, idColumn, nameColumn, atypeColumn, ageColumn, breedColumn, descriptionColumn, catColumn);
        return table;
    }

I want to sort the table by gender initially.

As far as I know I have to create a SortedList/FilteredList but the tutorial I found online is just confusing me even more.

Do I have to use SortedList/FilteredList or are there better alternatives?

Here's one of the links I found http://code.makery.ch/blog/javafx-8-tableview-sorting-filtering/

Can anyone dumb it down for me please?

Answer 1

There is no need to create a sorted list yourself. Just add the column to sort by to the sortOrder list of your TableView:

table.getSortOrder().add(genColumn);

Depending on the types displayed in the column(s), you may also want to set the comparator to use yourself (see TableColumnBase.comparatorProperty)

This approach has the benefit of using the sorting provided by user interaction (clicking on the column headers) instead of sorting the backing list (or using a "sorted view" of a list, which is what SortedList does).