comparator to compare class year

[javanub1990]

i am given a set of student data and i have to sort the data by the class year(freshman, sophomore, and etc). but since freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior are not in alphabetical order, i get freshman, junior, senior, and sophomore. how should i change the code so that the output would go from freshman->sophomore->junior->senior, and not the alphabetical order of the class year?

Thanks in advance!

[eRaaaa]

Mhm... use an enum type for the class years.
Then you are able to use the compareTo from enum class :p
(or you save the Strings/class years in an array and in your compareTo/compare method you compare the indices e.g. freshman = String[0] < sophomore in String[1])

[javanub1990]

i have the class year in an array of objects
and this is what i have for my comparator now

public int compare(Student a, Student b){
        return a.getclass().compareTo(b.getclass());
    }

[eRaaaa]

...i would use an enum :)
maybe something like:

enum CLASS_YEAR{
	FRESHMAN,SOPHOMORE,JUNIOR,SENIOR;
	
	public String toString() {
		return this.name().toLowerCase();
	};
}

class ClassYearComparator implements Comparator<Student>{
	@Override
	public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
		return o1.getYear().compareTo(o2.getYear());
	}
}

class Student{
	private CLASS_YEAR year;
	//.....

	public Student(/* ... */ CLASS_YEAR year) {
		this.year = year;
	}

	/**
	 * @return the year
	 */
	public CLASS_YEAR getYear() {
		return year;
	}
	
	//......
}