compareTo method

[Tabula Rasa]

Assuming there are methods called getLast() and getFirst()

public int compareTo(Object n)
    {
       Student s = (Student)n;
       int num = lastname.compareTo(s.getLast());
       return (num != 0 ? num : firstname.compareTo(s.getFirst()));
    }

I don't know how to interpret the method body. I know there is another way to write this code, but I am not sure what that is.

[Fubarable]

[ignore]I don't think you should be using getLast or getFirst (did your teacher suggest this, or if not, what are you trying to achieve by using this?) but rather simply comparing the current object with n.[/ignore]

Edit: Please ignore this dreck that I've posted above. -- I was not thinking but thought that you were getting the last or first items from a list not first and last names. :(

[eRaaaa]

It compares two Student objects by their last names. If these are equal, it will compare their first names!

[ozzyman]

sort a List of students "studentList" by first name:

Collections.sort(studentList, new Comparator(){

            public int compare(Object o1, Object o2) {
                Student s1 = (Student) o1;
                Student s2 = (Student) o2;
                int num = s1.getFirstName().compareToIgnoreCase(s2.getFirstName());
                boolean equal = num == 0;
                return equal? s1.getLastName().compareToIgnoreCase(s2.getLastName()) : num;
            }
 
        });

compareToIgnoreCase returns:
a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as the the specified String is greater than, equal to, or less than this String, ignoring case considerations.

[sunde887]

This original code, is it in a class that implements comparable? Have you tried getting a list of student objects and try sorting it? The original code you posted looks fairly decent, the easiest way to test it is to actually run it.