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

One of the simple way of using NullSafe Comparator is to use Spring implementation of it, below is one of the simple example to refer :

public int compare(Object o1, Object o2) {
        ValidationMessage m1 = (ValidationMessage) o1;
        ValidationMessage m2 = (ValidationMessage) o2;
        int c;
        if (m1.getTimestamp() == m2.getTimestamp()) {
            c = NullSafeComparator.NULLS_HIGH.compare(m1.getProperty(), m2.getProperty());
            if (c == 0) {
                c = m1.getSeverity().compareTo(m2.getSeverity());
                if (c == 0) {
                    c = m1.getMessage().compareTo(m2.getMessage());
                }
            }
        }
        else {
            c = (m1.getTimestamp() > m2.getTimestamp()) ? -1 : 1;
        }
        return c;
    }