How to Sort ArrayList using Comparator?

Last Updated : 15 Dec, 2020

Comparator is an interface that is used for rearranging the Arraylist in a sorted manner. Comparator is used to sort an ArrayList of User-defined objects. In java, Comparator is provided in java.util package. Using Comparator we can sort ArrayList on the basis of multiple variables. We can simply implement Comparator without affecting the original User-defined class. To sort an ArrayList using Comparator we need to override the compare() method provided by comparator interface. After rewriting the compare() method we need to call collections.sort() method like below.

Syntax:

Collections.sort(list, comparator)

Parameters:

list: List which should be sorted based on the comparator.
comparator: Comparator class instance

Returns: It sorts the list and does not return anything.

Example

Java

// Java program to Sort ArrayList using Comparator

import java.util.*;

// create the Shop class
class Shop {
    int ProductNo;
    String name;
    int stock;

    // constructor
    Shop(int ProductNo, String name, int stock)
    {
        this.ProductNo = ProductNo;
        this.name = name;
        this.stock = stock;
    }
}

// creates the comparator for comparing stock value
class StockComparator implements Comparator<Shop> {

    // override the compare() method
    public int compare(Shop s1, Shop s2)
    {
        if (s1.stock == s2.stock)
            return 0;
        else if (s1.stock > s2.stock)
            return 1;
        else
            return -1;
    }
}

class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // create the ArrayList object
        ArrayList<Shop> s = new ArrayList<Shop>();
        s.add(new Shop(218, "Pen", 520));
        s.add(new Shop(223, "Pencil", 213));
        s.add(new Shop(423, "Books", 101));
        s.add(new Shop(512, "Toy", 59));
        s.add(new Shop(723, "Bottle", 10));

        System.out.println("before sorting");
        for (Shop shop : s) {
            System.out.println(shop.stock + " " + shop.name
                               + " " + shop.ProductNo);
        }
        System.out.println();

        System.out.println(
            "After sorting(sorted by Stock)");

        // call the sort function
        Collections.sort(s, new StockComparator());
        for (Shop shop : s) {
            System.out.println(shop.stock + " " + shop.name
                               + " " + shop.ProductNo);
        }
    }
}

Output

before sorting
520 Pen 218
213 Pencil 223
101 Books 423
59 Toy 512
10 Bottle 723

After sorting(sorted by Stock)
10 Bottle 723
59 Toy 512
101 Books 423
213 Pencil 223
520 Pen 218

In the above example, we sort the Shop class by the number of stock available. We can also sort it on the basis of name and ProductNo. Let's sort the above ArrayList based on the name.

Example 2