How to sort two different objects in a collection?

Question

Suppose I have two classes CLassA and CLassB. And they have one atributte in common, for example the number of elements that each class holds.

How can i create a collect

Answer 1

If you have access to the declaration of CLassA and ~B, then go with a common interface, if not you could write a Wrapper for both Classes:

I defined - against the description - my own classes ~A and ~B, to have something to test. Imagine they're foreign source, and you just have access to the classes.

import java.util.*;

public class SortAB
{
    class CLassA {
        int [] elements;
        public CLassA (int [] a) {elements = a;}
        public int getElementCount () {return elements.length;}
    }

    class CLassB {
        List  elements;
        public CLassB (List  l) {elements = l;}
        public int getElementCount () {return elements.size ();}
    }

    /** a common element-count-wrapper with compareTo method */     
    abstract class EcWrapper  implements Comparable  {
        public abstract int getElementCount ();
        public int compareTo (EcWrapper o) {return getElementCount () - o.getElementCount ();}
    }
    /** concrete Wrapper for CLassA */
    class EcAWrapper extends EcWrapper  {
        private CLassA inner;
        public EcAWrapper (CLassA t) {
            inner = t;
        }
        public int getElementCount () {return inner.getElementCount (); }
    }
    /** concrete Wrapper for CLassB */
    class EcBWrapper extends EcWrapper  {
        private CLassB inner;
        public EcBWrapper (CLassB t) {
            inner = t;
        }
        public int getElementCount () {return inner.getElementCount (); }
    }

    // testing
    public SortAB ()
    {
        int [] ia = {3, 5, 7, 6, 9, 11, 14}; 
        List  il = new ArrayList  (); 
        for (int i: ia) 
            il.add (i); 
        il.add (15);
        il.add (16);

        CLassA a = new CLassA (ia);
        CLassB b = new CLassB (il);
        List  list = new ArrayList  ();
        list.add (new EcBWrapper (b));
        list.add (new EcAWrapper (a));
        show (list);
        Collections.sort (list);
        show (list);
    }

    public static void main (String args[])
    {
        new SortAB ();
    }

    public static void show (List  list)
    {
        for (EcWrapper e: list) 
            System.out.println ("\t" + e.getElementCount ());
        System.out.println ("---");
    }
}