Help with my sort program

[kneil]

 public void sortStudent(){
    	String []temp = new String[getStudentLength()];
//data[i][1] holds the names of the students
    	for(int i = 0; data[i][1]!=null && i < getStudentLength(); i++){
    		temp[i] = data[i][1]+"";
    		
    	}
       Arrays.sort(temp);
//after sorting the single arrays I implemented it in 2d arrays but I am having trouble doing it
       for(int x = 0; x<temp.length;x++){
       		for(int y =0; y<temp.length;y++){
       	   	if(temp[x].equalsIgnoreCase(data[y][1]+"")){
       	   		data[x] = data[y];
       	   		
       	   		}
       		}
       }
 }

I need help on this sorting I don't really know how to sort 2d arrays

[berkeleybross]

Could you give us a better description of your problem?

At the moment you have just thrown us some code and said you need to sort it.

What sorting method do you wish to use? Bubblesort, mergesort, binarysort?

Berkeleybross

[kneil]

I guess any sorting algo will do I don't really care much bout the running time
data[i] holds a student
data[i][1] holds the name of the student

so if I want to sort this I want to sort them using data[i][1]

I tried adding data[i][1] to a single array callled temp

I used Arrays.sort(temp) to sort temp which are the names of the student

now I am having trouble relating the temp to my data!!!

If you have anything better can you please tell cause I don't really know how to sort 2d arrays(actually Idk how to sort singles to)

[al_Marshy_1981]

But what way do you want to sort the students? by marks, by name, by what?

[kneil]

I want to sort them by names no marks just start with the first word..., actually what I really need is to seperate them first from male and female and then sort the males and then sort the females

data[i][4] actually holds their gender
data[i][1] holds names

[al_Marshy_1981]

By what source are you reading students into your program, by file or by manual input, or predefined in your program.

[berkeleybross]

To sort by multiple field you can do one of two things.
You can sort multiple times, the least important first. So in your case you would sort by names and then sort by gender.
Alternatively, you can implement a Comparator which checks if they are the same gender and then by name.

The advantage of the comparator is you can use it on a 2d array in one sort. You may want to look at this link.

However I think that is the easy way out if you are trying to learn sorting for the first time.

Working with what you have, it shouldnt be too difficult to get the sorted result.

I would suggest you make a new 2d array, which will hold the sorted results.

With the sorted single array of names, temp, and the 2d array, result:

for i...
    temp[i] = data [i][1]
sort (temp)

for i...
    for j...
        if temp[i] == data[j][1]
             result[i] = data [j]

Repeat this for the gender, and you should be done.

if you dont understand why that should work, please ask :)

berkeleybross