Sort ArrayList of Array in Java

Question

What is the best way to sort an ArrayList in Java?

Where String[] is...

String[] = new String[] { \"abc\", \"abc\", \"ab         


        

Answer 1

Start with Collections.sort, the one that takes a custom Comparator. You'll need to write a custom Comparator for this also.

For instance, assuming you want to rely on the natural ordering of Strings as defined in their compareTo method:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        ArrayList listOfStringArrays = new ArrayList();
        listOfStringArrays.add(new String[] {"x","y","z"});
        listOfStringArrays.add(new String[] {"a","b","c"});
        listOfStringArrays.add(new String[] {"m","n","o"});
        Collections.sort(listOfStringArrays,new Comparator() {
            public int compare(String[] strings, String[] otherStrings) {
                return strings[1].compareTo(otherStrings[1]);
            }
        });
        for (String[] sa : listOfStringArrays) {
            System.out.println(Arrays.toString(sa));
        }
        /* prints out 
          [a, b, c]
          [m, n, o]
          [x, y, z]
        */ 

    }