How to use Comparator in Java to sort

Question

I learned how to use the comparable but I'm having difficulty with the Comparator. I am having a error in my code:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: New.People cannot be cast to java.lang.Comparable
 at java.util.Arrays.mergeSort(Unknown Source)
 at java.util.Arrays.sort(Unknown Source)
 at java.util.Collections.sort(Unknown Source)
 at New.TestPeople.main(TestPeople.java:18)

Here is my code:

import java.util.Comparator;

public class People implements Comparator {
   private int id;
   private String info;
   private double price;

   public People(int newid, String newinfo, double newprice) {
       setid(newid);
       setinfo(newinfo);
       setprice(newprice);
   }

   public int getid() {
       return id;
   }

   public void setid(int id) {
       this.id = id;
   }

   public String getinfo() {
       return info;
   }

   public void setinfo(String info) {
       this.info = info;
   }

   public double getprice() {
       return price;
   }

   public void setprice(double price) {
       this.price = price;
   }

   public int compare(Object obj1, Object obj2) {
       Integer p1 = ((People) obj1).getid();
       Integer p2 = ((People) obj2).getid();

       if (p1 > p2) {
           return 1;
       } else if (p1 < p2){
           return -1;
       } else {
           return 0;
       }
    }
}

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class TestPeople {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ArrayList peps = new ArrayList();

        peps.add(new People(123, "M", 14.25));
        peps.add(new People(234, "M", 6.21));
        peps.add(new People(362, "F", 9.23));
        peps.add(new People(111, "M", 65.99));
        peps.add(new People(535, "F", 9.23));

        Collections.sort(peps);

        for (int i = 0; i < peps.size(); i++){
            System.out.println(peps.get(i));
        }
    }
}

I believe it has to do something with the casting in the compare method but I was playing around with it and still could not find the solution

Answer 1

Java 8 added a new way of making Comparators that reduces the amount of code you have to write, Comparator.comparing. Also check out Comparator.reversed

Here's a sample

import org.junit.Test;

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

import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;

public class ComparatorTest {

    @Test
    public void test() {
        List<Person> peopleList = new ArrayList<>();
        peopleList.add(new Person("A", 1000));
        peopleList.add(new Person("B", 1));
        peopleList.add(new Person("C", 50));
        peopleList.add(new Person("Z", 500));
        //sort by name, ascending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getName().equals("A"));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getName().equals("Z"));
        //sort by name, descending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getName).reversed());
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getName().equals("Z"));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getName().equals("A"));
        //sort by age, ascending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getAge));
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getAge() == 1);
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getAge() == 1000);
        //sort by age, descending
        peopleList.sort(Comparator.comparing(Person::getAge).reversed());
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(0).getAge() == 1000);
        assertTrue(peopleList.get(peopleList.size() - 1).getAge() == 1);
    }

    class Person {

        String name;
        int age;

        Person(String n, int a) {
            name = n;
            age = a;
        }

        public String getName() {
            return name;
        }

        public int getAge() {
            return age;
        }

        public void setName(String name) {
            this.name = name;
        }

        public void setAge(int age) {
            this.age = age;
        }
    }



}

Answer 2

There are a couple of awkward things with your example class:

• it's called People while it has a price and info (more something for objects, not people);
• when naming a class as a plural of something, it suggests it is an abstraction of more than one thing.

Anyway, here's a demo of how to use a Comparator<T>:

public class ComparatorDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Person> people = Arrays.asList(
                new Person("Joe", 24),
                new Person("Pete", 18),
                new Person("Chris", 21)
        );
        Collections.sort(people, new LexicographicComparator());
        System.out.println(people);
        Collections.sort(people, new AgeComparator());
        System.out.println(people);
    }
}

class LexicographicComparator implements Comparator<Person> {
    @Override
    public int compare(Person a, Person b) {
        return a.name.compareToIgnoreCase(b.name);
    }
}

class AgeComparator implements Comparator<Person> {
    @Override
    public int compare(Person a, Person b) {
        return a.age < b.age ? -1 : a.age == b.age ? 0 : 1;
    }
}

class Person {

    String name;
    int age;

    Person(String n, int a) {
        name = n;
        age = a;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return String.format("{name=%s, age=%d}", name, age);
    }
}

EDIT

And an equivalent Java 8 demo would look like this:

public class ComparatorDemo {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Person> people = Arrays.asList(
                new Person("Joe", 24),
                new Person("Pete", 18),
                new Person("Chris", 21)
        );
        Collections.sort(people, (a, b) -> a.name.compareToIgnoreCase(b.name));
        System.out.println(people);
        Collections.sort(people, (a, b) -> a.age < b.age ? -1 : a.age == b.age ? 0 : 1);
        System.out.println(people);
    }
}

Answer 3

public static Comparator<JobSet> JobEndTimeComparator = new Comparator<JobSet>() {
            public int compare(JobSet j1, JobSet j2) {
                int cost1 = j1.cost;
                int cost2 = j2.cost;
                return cost1-cost2;
            }
        };

Answer 4

The solution can be optimized in following way: Firstly, use a private inner class as the scope for the fields is to be the enclosing class TestPeople so as the implementation of class People won't get exposed to outer world. This can be understood in terms of creating an APIthat expects a sorted list of people Secondly, using the Lamba expression(java 8) which reduces the code, hence development effort

Hence code would be as below:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;

public class TestPeople {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ArrayList<People> peps = new ArrayList<>();// Be specific, to avoid
                                                    // classCast Exception

        TestPeople test = new TestPeople();

        peps.add(test.new People(123, "M", 14.25));
        peps.add(test.new People(234, "M", 6.21));
        peps.add(test.new People(362, "F", 9.23));
        peps.add(test.new People(111, "M", 65.99));
        peps.add(test.new People(535, "F", 9.23));

        /*
         * Collections.sort(peps);
         * 
         * for (int i = 0; i < peps.size(); i++){
         * System.out.println(peps.get(i)); }
         */

        // The above code can be replaced by followin:

        peps.sort((People p1, People p2) -> p1.getid() - p2.getid());

        peps.forEach((p) -> System.out.println(" " + p.toString()));

    }

    private class People {
        private int id;

        @Override
        public String toString() {
            return "People [id=" + id + ", info=" + info + ", price=" + price + "]";
        }

        private String info;
        private double price;

        public People(int newid, String newinfo, double newprice) {
            setid(newid);
            setinfo(newinfo);
            setprice(newprice);
        }

        public int getid() {
            return id;
        }

        public void setid(int id) {
            this.id = id;
        }

        public String getinfo() {
            return info;
        }

        public void setinfo(String info) {
            this.info = info;
        }

        public double getprice() {
            return price;
        }

        public void setprice(double price) {
            this.price = price;
        }
    }
}