How to Sort Java ArrayList

ArrayList in Java is an ordered collection in the sense that it maintains the insertion order of the elements but sometimes you may have a requirement to sort an ArrayList in ascending order or descending order. In this post we’ll see How to sort an ArrayList in Java.

Table of contents

Methods used to sort Java ArrayList
Sorting Java ArrayList example
Sorting Java ArrayList in descending order
Sorting Arraylist using reverseOrder method
Sorting Arraylist by providing own custom Comparator

Methods used to sort Java ArrayList

Collections class in Java provides many utility methods that operate on collections, this class also has sort method. Actually sort() method is overloaded in Collections class and there are 2 variants.

void sort(List list)- Sorts the specified list into ascending order, according to the natural ordering of its elements.
sort(List list, Comparator<? super T> c)- Sorts the specified list according to the order induced by the specified Comparator.

Sorting Java ArrayList example

If you want to sort ArrayList in ascending order then you can just pass the List in Collections.sort() method. All the wrapper classes in Java (Integer, Long etc.), String, Date implements Comparable interface and provide implementation of compareTo() method which decides their natural ordering. So, if you have an ArrayList of String, Integer, Long, Float, Date is will be sorted in ascending order by using sort() method.

Sorting ArrayList of String example code

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

public class SortingList {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<String> carList = new ArrayList<String>();
    carList.add("Audi");
    carList.add("Jaguar");
    carList.add("Mini Cooper");
    carList.add("BMW");
    System.out.println("List elements- " + carList);
    // Sorting list
    Collections.sort(carList);
    System.out.println("List elements after sorting- " + carList);
  }
}

Output

List elements- [Audi, Jaguar, Mini Cooper, BMW]
List elements after sorting- [Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mini Cooper]

Sorting Java ArrayList in descending order

If you want to sort ArrayList in reverse order of the natural ordering then Collections class has a reverseOrder() method that can be used. Alternatively you can write your own Comparator.

reverseOrder()- Returns a Comparator that imposes the reverse of the natural ordering on a collection of objects that implement the Comparable interface.

Sorting Arraylist using reverseOrder method

Since reverseOrder() method returns a Comparator so you will have to use Collections.sort() method where you can pass Comparator as an argument.

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

public class SortingList {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<String> carList = new ArrayList<String>();
    carList.add("Audi");
    carList.add("Jaguar");
    carList.add("Mini Cooper");
    carList.add("BMW");
    System.out.println("List elements- " + carList);
    // Sorting list in reverse order
    Collections.sort(carList, Collections.reverseOrder());
    System.out.println("List elements after sorting- " + carList);
  }
}

Output

List elements- [Audi, Jaguar, Mini Cooper, BMW]
List elements after sorting- [Mini Cooper, Jaguar, BMW, Audi]

Sorting Arraylist by providing own custom Comparator

Collections.reverseOrder() method returns an implementation of Comparator class. Same way you can write your own Comparator for the ordering you want to impose and use that to sort the List.

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

public class SortingList {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    List<String> carList = new ArrayList<String>();
    carList.add("Audi");
    carList.add("Jaguar");
    carList.add("Mini Cooper");
    carList.add("BMW");
    System.out.println("List elements- " + carList);
    // Sorting list in reverse order
    Collections.sort(carList, new MyComparator());
    System.out.println("List elements after sorting- " + carList);
  }
}

//Comparator class
class MyComparator implements Comparator<String>{
  @Override
  public int compare(String o1, String o2) {
    return o2.compareTo(o1);
  }    
}

Output

List elements- [Audi, Jaguar, Mini Cooper, BMW]
List elements after sorting- [Mini Cooper, Jaguar, BMW, Audi]

That's all for the topic How to Sort Java ArrayList. If something is missing or you have something to share about the topic please write a comment.

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May 23, 2022