CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaarrayssorting
Matthew Paul
Matthew Paul

Reputation: 33

Implementing a multi-columned array sort

I'm trying to sort data in an array that looks like this: 

(String, int, String, double)

or

(David, 25, Da, 123.54)

I want the delineation for the array sort to be decided by the "integer" value. So, for example:

David, 25, Da, 123.54
Sean, 27, Pa, 514.21
Luke, 32, Ma, 221.54

These values are being read from a file, organized in a constructor,and sent back to the driver.

Here's what I have so far, I'm not sure of how much use it will be:

    public class NamesAges{
       public String[] display() throws IOException {  

    FileReader fileReader = new FileReader("elements.csv");  

    BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);  
    List<String> lines = new ArrayList<String>();  
    String line = null;  

    while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null)  
    {  
        lines.add(line);  
        System.out.println(line);
    }  

    bufferedReader.close();  

    String[] sl = (String[]) lines.toArray(new String[0]);


    return sl;
    }  
}

Any tips?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 102

Answers (2)

duffymo
duffymo

Reputation: 308848

I'd recommend encapsulating each row into an Object and writing a Comparator to sort them as needed. Java's an object-oriented language; stop thinking in terms of primitives and Strings.

Upvotes: 4

G. Bach
G. Bach

Reputation: 3909

The easiest way would probably be to create a class that encapsulates the four values, make the class implement Comparable and define its compareTo() method via the integer.

Upvotes: 2

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