How do I sort LinkedList elements?

To sort the elements of LinkedList we can use the Collections.sort(List<T> list) static methods. The default order of the sorting is a descending order.

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class LinkedListSort {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LinkedList<String> grades = new LinkedList<>();
        grades.add("E");
        grades.add("C");
        grades.add("A");
        grades.add("F");
        grades.add("B");
        grades.add("D");

        System.out.println("Before sorting:");
        System.out.println("===============");
        for (String grade : grades) {
            System.out.println("Grade = " + grade);
        }

        // Sort the elements of linked list based on its data
        // natural order.
        Collections.sort(grades);

        System.out.println("After sorting:");
        System.out.println("===============");
        for (String grade : grades) {
            System.out.println("Grade = " + grade);
        }
    }
}

The result of the program are:

Before sorting:
===============
Grade = E
Grade = C
Grade = A
Grade = F
Grade = B
Grade = D
After sorting:
===============
Grade = A
Grade = B
Grade = C
Grade = D
Grade = E
Grade = F

How do I reverse the order of LinkedList elements?

To reverse the order of LinkedList elements we can use the reverse(List<?> list) static method of java.util.Collections class. Here is the example:

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class LinkedListReverseOrder {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LinkedList<String> grades = new LinkedList<>();
        grades.add("A");
        grades.add("B");
        grades.add("C");
        grades.add("D");
        grades.add("E");
        grades.add("F");

        System.out.println("Output in original order:");
        System.out.println("=========================");
        for (String grade : grades) {
            System.out.println("Grade = " + grade);
        }

        // Reverse the element order in the linked list object.
        Collections.reverse(grades);

        System.out.println("Output in reverse order:");
        System.out.println("=========================");
        for (String grade : grades) {
            System.out.println("Grade = " + grade);
        }
    }
}

Here is the output of the program:

Output in original order:
=========================
Grade = A
Grade = B
Grade = C
Grade = D
Grade = E
Grade = F
Output in reverse order:
=========================
Grade = F
Grade = E
Grade = D
Grade = C
Grade = B
Grade = A

How do I search collection elements?

This code example use the Collections.binarySearch() to search an specified object inside a specified collections. Prior to calling the binarySearch() method we need to sort the elements of the collection. If the object is not sorted according to their natural order the search result will be undefined.

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.text.DateFormatSymbols;

public class CollectionSearch {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DateFormatSymbols dfs = new DateFormatSymbols();

        LinkedList<String> monthList =
                new LinkedList<>(Arrays.asList(dfs.getMonths()));

        // Sort the collection elements
        Collections.sort(monthList);
        System.out.println("Months = " + monthList);

        // Get the position of November inside the monthList. It returns a positive
        // value if the item found in the monthList.
        int index = Collections.binarySearch(monthList, "November");
        if (index > 0) {
            System.out.println("Found at index = " + index);
            System.out.println("Month = " + monthList.get(index));
        }
    }
}

The output of the code snippet above is below.

Months = [, April, August, December, February, January, July, June, March, May, November, October, September]
Found at index = 10
Month = November

How do I rotate elements of a collection?

This example demonstrate how to rotate the elements of a collection object. We can use the java.util.Collections class and call the rotate() method with the collection to rotate and the distance as the parameters.

package org.kodejava.util;

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

public class CollectionRotate {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Integer> numbers = new ArrayList<>();

        // Add some items into the collection
        for (int i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
            numbers.add(i);
        }

        // Print the collection items        
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(numbers.toArray()));

        // Rotates the elements in the collection by the 10.
        Collections.rotate(numbers, 10);

        // Print the rotated collection items
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(numbers.toArray()));
    }
}

Here is the program result:

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]
[15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

How do I sort strings using Collator class?

In this example we demonstrate how to use the java.text.Collator class to sort strings in language-specific order. Using the java.text.Collator class makes the string not just sorted by the ASCII code of their characters, but it will follow the language natural order of the characters.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.text.Collator;

public class StringShortWithCollator {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<String> fruits = new ArrayList<>();
        fruits.add("Guava");
        fruits.add("Banana");
        fruits.add("Orange");
        fruits.add("Mango");
        fruits.add("Apple");

        // Define a collator for US English.
        Collator collator = Collator.getInstance(Locale.US);

        // Sort the list base on the collator
        fruits.sort(collator);

        for (String fruit : fruits) {
            System.out.println("Fruit = " + fruit);
        }
    }
}

The result of the code snippet above are:

Fruit = Apple
Fruit = Banana
Fruit = Guava
Fruit = Mango
Fruit = Orange