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

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Comparator;

public class TestClass {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Student s1 = new Student("1","Nikhil");
        Student s2 = new Student("1","*");
        Student s3 = new Student("1",null);
        Student s11 = new Student("2","Nikhil");
        Student s12 = new Student("2","*");
        Student s13 = new Student("2",null);
        List list = new ArrayList();
        list.add(s1);
        list.add(s2);
        list.add(s3);
        list.add(s11);
        list.add(s12);
        list.add(s13);

        list.sort(Comparator.comparing(Student::getName,Comparator.nullsLast(Comparator.naturalOrder())));

        for (Iterator iterator = list.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
            Student student = (Student) iterator.next();
            System.out.println(student);
        }


    }

}

output is

Student [name=*, id=1]
Student [name=*, id=2]
Student [name=Nikhil, id=1]
Student [name=Nikhil, id=2]
Student [name=null, id=1]
Student [name=null, id=2]