How to simplify a null-safe compareTo() implementation?

Question

I\'m implementing compareTo() method for a simple class such as this (to be able to use Collections.sort() and other goodies offered by the Java pl

Answer 1

we can use java 8 to do a null-friendly comparasion between object. supposed i hava a Boy class with 2 fields: String name and Integer age and i want to first compare names and then ages if both are equal.

static void test2() {
    List list = new ArrayList<>();
    list.add(new Boy("Peter", null));
    list.add(new Boy("Tom", 24));
    list.add(new Boy("Peter", 20));
    list.add(new Boy("Peter", 23));
    list.add(new Boy("Peter", 18));
    list.add(new Boy(null, 19));
    list.add(new Boy(null, 12));
    list.add(new Boy(null, 24));
    list.add(new Boy("Peter", null));
    list.add(new Boy(null, 21));
    list.add(new Boy("John", 30));

    List list2 = list.stream()
            .sorted(comparing(Boy::getName, 
                        nullsLast(naturalOrder()))
                   .thenComparing(Boy::getAge, 
                        nullsLast(naturalOrder())))
            .collect(toList());
    list2.stream().forEach(System.out::println);

}

private static class Boy {
    private String name;
    private Integer age;
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
    public Integer getAge() {
        return age;
    }
    public void setAge(Integer age) {
        this.age = age;
    }
    public Boy(String name, Integer age) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String toString() {
        return "name: " + name + " age: " + age;
    }
}

and the result:

    name: John age: 30
    name: Peter age: 18
    name: Peter age: 20
    name: Peter age: 23
    name: Peter age: null
    name: Peter age: null
    name: Tom age: 24
    name: null age: 12
    name: null age: 19
    name: null age: 21
    name: null age: 24