How to sort a List<Object> alphabetically using Object name field

Answer 1

Here is a version of Robert B's answer that works for List and sorting by a specified String property of the object using Reflection and no 3rd party libraries

/**
 * Sorts a List by the specified String property name of the object.
 * 
 * @param list
 * @param propertyName
 */
public static  void sortList(List list, final String propertyName) {

    if (list.size() > 0) {
        Collections.sort(list, new Comparator() {
            @Override
            public int compare(final T object1, final T object2) {
                String property1 = (String)ReflectionUtils.getSpecifiedFieldValue (propertyName, object1);
                String property2 = (String)ReflectionUtils.getSpecifiedFieldValue (propertyName, object2);
                return property1.compareToIgnoreCase (property2);
            }
        });
    }
}


public static Object getSpecifiedFieldValue (String property, Object obj) {

    Object result = null;

    try {
        Class objectClass = obj.getClass();
        Field objectField = getDeclaredField(property, objectClass);
        if (objectField!=null) {
            objectField.setAccessible(true);
            result = objectField.get(obj);
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {         
    }
    return result;
}

public static Field getDeclaredField(String fieldName, Class type) {

    Field result = null;
    try {
        result = type.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
    } catch (Exception e) {
    }       

    if (result == null) {
        Class superclass = type.getSuperclass();     
        if (superclass != null && !superclass.getName().equals("java.lang.Object")) {       
            return getDeclaredField(fieldName, type.getSuperclass());
        }
    }
    return result;
}