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Teacher Russell
16,873 Pointsinterfaces
Hi folks. I'm still a little confused about what we're using compareTo() for here. We're comparing the Treet to itself? Just a very basic explanation of what we're accomplishing in the end with this implementation and how it effects this program.
3 Answers
andren
28,558 PointsThe compareTo method takes an Object as a parameter, this object is another Treet (not the same as the treat the compareTo was called on), this Object is cast as a Treet so that we can access its properties. Then the Treet that the compareTo method is called on is compared to the Treet that was passed in to the method.
The goal of the method is to see if the Treet that was passed in is equal, greater or lesser than the Treet the method was called on. If the passed in Treet is the same 0 is returned. If it is "greater" then a positive number is returned, if it is "lesser" then a negative number is returned.
The method is written like this because that is how the compareTo method is supposed to act, according to the Comparable interface. When implementing an interface it's important to not just implement the required methods but to also make sure they follow the behavior the interface specifies.
The point of the method is that it allows other methods like sort to sort arrays made up of a custom class like Treet. Without this method it would have no idea how to sort Treet objects as they have no natural order to them. With this method in place however it can easily compare them just by calling that method. And not just Treet objects, the sort method can work with all classes that implement the Comparable interface, that is one of the benefits of interfaces. It allows you to have methods that can work with pretty much any class as long as they implement a specific interface. Which is often more efficient than having to write methods that only work with specific classes.
Sean M
7,344 PointsI try to understand the concepts in simple words so it makes sense at another time.
The compareTo() method does exactly what it says. It compares something to something else.
In our example, it compares one treet to another treet, specifically by the date it was created.
Then when Arrays.sort(treets) is implemented, it sorts the treets in order by creation date.
Hope that made sense.
Tonnie Fanadez
UX Design Techdegree Graduate 22,796 PointsSo the Class Treet has 3 attributes i.e. mAuthor, mDescription and mCreationDate. My Question is which attribute does equals(other) compare among the 3 attributes. Thanks
Sean M
7,344 PointsI believe the answer to your question is mCreationDate because the question wants to sort the treets by the date it was created.
Teacher Russell
16,873 PointsTeacher Russell
16,873 PointsThough I'm not getting it yet, the part I'm confused about is in your last paragraph. The point of the method. Especially the first sentence. When I get past that, I'm getting somewhere. I appreciate your help. Thanks!