Collections sort(List,Comparator) method example

Building upon your existing Student class, this is how I usually do it, especially if I need more than one comparator.

public class Student implements Comparable<Student> {

    String name;
    int age;

    public Student(String name, int age) {
       this.name = name;
       this.age = age;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return name + ":" + age;
    }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(Student o) {
        return Comparators.NAME.compare(this, o);
    }


    public static class Comparators {

        public static Comparator<Student> NAME = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                return o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
            }
        };
        public static Comparator<Student> AGE = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                return o1.age - o2.age;
            }
        };
        public static Comparator<Student> NAMEANDAGE = new Comparator<Student>() {
            @Override
            public int compare(Student o1, Student o2) {
                int i = o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
                if (i == 0) {
                    i = o1.age - o2.age;
                }
                return i;
            }
        };
    }
}

Usage:

List<Student> studentList = new LinkedList<>();
Collections.sort(studentList, Student.Comparators.AGE);

EDIT

Since the release of Java 8 the inner class Comparators may be greatly simplified using lambdas. Java 8 also introduces a new method for the Comparator object thenComparing, which removes the need for doing manual checking of each comparator when nesting them. Below is the Java 8 implementation of the Student.Comparators class with these changes taken into account.

public static class Comparators {
    public static final Comparator<Student> NAME = (Student o1, Student o2) -> o1.name.compareTo(o2.name);
    public static final Comparator<Student> AGE = (Student o1, Student o2) -> Integer.compare(o1.age, o2.age);
    public static final Comparator<Student> NAMEANDAGE = (Student o1, Student o2) -> NAME.thenComparing(AGE).compare(o1, o2);
}