How to use Collections.sort() in Java?

Solution 1:

Use this method Collections.sort(List,Comparator) . Implement a Comparator and pass it to Collections.sort().

class RecipeCompare implements Comparator<Recipe> {

    @Override
    public int compare(Recipe o1, Recipe o2) {
        // write comparison logic here like below , it's just a sample
        return o1.getID().compareTo(o2.getID());
    }
}

Then use the Comparator as

Collections.sort(recipes,new RecipeCompare());

Solution 2:

The answer given by NINCOMPOOP can be made simpler using Lambda Expressions:

Collections.sort(recipes, (Recipe r1, Recipe r2) ->
r1.getID().compareTo(r2.getID()));

Also introduced after Java 8 is the comparator construction methods in the Comparator interface. Using these, one can further reduce this to ¹:

recipes.sort(comparingInt(Recipe::getId));

¹ Bloch, J. Effective Java (3^rd Edition). 2018. Item 42, p. 194.

Solution 3:

Create a comparator which accepts the compare mode in its constructor and pass different modes for different scenarios based on your requirement

public class RecipeComparator implements Comparator<Recipe> {

public static final int COMPARE_BY_ID = 0;
public static final int COMPARE_BY_NAME = 1;

private int compare_mode = COMPARE_BY_NAME;

public RecipeComparator() {
}

public RecipeComparator(int compare_mode) {
    this.compare_mode = compare_mode;
}

@Override
public int compare(Recipe o1, Recipe o2) {
    switch (compare_mode) {
    case COMPARE_BY_ID:
        return o1.getId().compareTo(o2.getId());
    default:
        return o1.getInputRecipeName().compareTo(o2.getInputRecipeName());
    }
}

}

Actually for numbers you need to handle them separately check below

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String string1 = "1";
    String string2 = "2";
    String string11 = "11";

    System.out.println(string1.compareTo(string2)); 
    System.out.println(string2.compareTo(string11));// expected -1 returns 1
   // to compare numbers you actually need to do something like this

    int number2 = Integer.valueOf(string1);
    int number11 = Integer.valueOf(string11);

    int compareTo = number2 > number11 ? 1 : (number2 < number11 ? -1 : 0) ;
    System.out.println(compareTo);// prints -1
}