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I have developed/implemented a generic compareTo method in Java. So that for any object you define, it will hava a compareTo method. Is this relevant? Please answer and comment.

Alexandru Manescu
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  • "relevant" to what? – sdgfsdh Jan 29 '18 at 09:51
  • Leave the superior/inferior aside. You can not say that 3 is superior to 1. You just say that is at a distance of 2. So the compareTo is showing how different is an object from other object of the same type. – Alexandru Manescu Jan 29 '18 at 10:00
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    "Leave the superior/inferior aside" => But that's the nature of the `compareTo` method! Quote from [`Comparable`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/Comparable.html): "This interface imposes a total ordering on the objects of each class that implements it. This ordering is referred to as the class's _natural ordering_, and the class's compareTo method is referred to as its _natural comparison method_." – Seelenvirtuose Jan 29 '18 at 10:14
  • Let's say you intend to compare a bottle of Coca-Cola with a bottle Schweppes(instances of Beverage let's say). And we presume that compareTo will return 3. If you compare a bottle of Schweppes with a bottle of Coca-Cola the result will be -3. And finally, if you compare a bottle of Schweppes with a bottle of Schweppes the result of compareTo will be 0. practically you determine the distance in spatiality. – Alexandru Manescu Jan 29 '18 at 10:37
  • @Aaron, basically the `compareTo` method is really for homogeneous sets – Victor M Perez Jan 29 '18 at 10:40
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    @VictorHerasmePerez right, my initial reasoning was flawed since `comparesTo` applies to members of a same class anyway. Seelenvirtuose's point is relevant though : you can't have a generic compareTo because not all classes represent sets of objects with total order. [You can't order complex numbers for instance](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/487997/total-ordering-on-complex-numbers). – Aaron Jan 29 '18 at 10:59
  • Leave total order aside – Alexandru Manescu Jan 29 '18 at 11:19
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    Please do not vandalize your posts. By posting on Stack Overflow, you've granted a non-revocable right for SO to distribute that content under the [CC BY-SA 3.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). By SO policy, any vandalism will be reverted. – iBug Jan 31 '18 at 06:57
  • There is already a library that does that: http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-beanutils/ –  Jan 31 '18 at 07:11

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Good luck with that. And please share it with us too

Victor M Perez
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