So I've been given the following problem:
Write a program that creates a List of Rationals and sorts them into increasing order. Use appropriate methods from the Collections Framework classes to sort the elements into increasing order.
I've created a 'Rational' class to represent rational numbers and I've also made the list of random Rational numbers. But I'm having trouble figuring out a way to implement a method of sorting the list. Here's samples of the code before I go on further:
public class Rational implements Comparable<Rational> {
private int num;
private int denom;
private int common;
// Default constructor initialises fields
public Rational() throws IllegalNumDenomException {
setNum(1);
setDenom(2);
}
// Constructor sets fields with given parameters
public Rational(int num, int denom) throws IllegalNumDenomException {
common = gcd(num,denom);
setNum(num/common);
setDenom(denom/common);
}
//Compares two rational numbers
public int compareTo(Rational rhs) {
int tempNumerator = this.getNum() * rhs.getDenom();
int tempNumeratorRhs = rhs.getNum() * this.getDenom();
//Compares rationalised numerators and returns a corresponding value
if (tempNumerator < tempNumeratorRhs) {
return -1;
} else if (tempNumerator > tempNumeratorRhs) {
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
// Overriden toString method
public String toString() {
return num + "/" + denom;
}
//Calculates the GCD of a fraction to simplify it later on
public int gcd(int x, int y) throws IllegalNumDenomException{
while(x != 1){ //Prevents infinite loop as everything is divisible by 1
if(x == y){
return x;
}
else if(x>y){
return gcd(x-y,y);
}
return gcd(x,y/x);
}
return 1;
}
public class RationalList {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IllegalNumDenomException {
List<Rational> rationals = new ArrayList<Rational>();
Random rand = new Random();
int n = rand.nextInt(50) + 1;
//Generates 9 random Rationals
for(int i = 1; i<10; i++){
rationals.add(new Rational(i,n));
n = rand.nextInt(50) + 1;
}
System.out.println("Original Order: " + rationals.toString());
sort(rationals);
System.out.println(rationals);
}
public static List<Rational> sort(List<Rational> rationals){
//Use compareTo method inside a loop until list is sorted
return rationals;
}
Sorry it's a bit long. So my thinking is creating a sort method and using the compareTo method to determine if a Rational is in the correct place, if not swap it. But then I'm unsure if you're able to even move elements around in a list like you can in an array. So I then thought maybe I need to implement the Collections.sort() method and override the sort method but I get to the same problem. Maybe I could use .toArray?
Can anyone shed some light on the way to do this please? Just hints would be useful.