Sorting arrays of objects using compareTo()

Question

I may be making this a lot harder than it is...but my assignment was to create a showtimes class that implements Comparable. With this it constructs sort of a list of several different theatres w/ what movies are showing, with the times etc. Then I have to use the compareTo() method to sort it by first the cinema that it's showing in, and by the movie title. I have the following code...the confusion comes when I'm trying to output the sorted results. I have it to where it will output the - or + number from comparing the strings. ``` public class ShowTimeTest { public static void main(String[] args) { ShowTime[] movieTimes= new ShowTime[20]; // TODO Auto-generated method stub //****************************************************** //Instantiates 20 showtime objects //****************************************************** ShowTime cinemark1 = new ShowTime("Cinemark", "Lorde", "Friday @ 3:30", "Saturday @ 7:00", "Sunday @ 6:00","R", 1, 2); ShowTime cinemark2 = new ShowTime("Amstar Cinem…

Accepted Answer

The point of making your class implement the `Comparable` interface was so that you could sort an array of `ShowTime`s. You've done all the hard work. Now just apply Arrays.sort, sit back, and enjoy the movies.

Since this is an educational show, let me be 100% pellucidly clear: You already have yourself an `Object[]` whose elements implement `Comparable`, namely `movieTimes`. So, all you need to do is add the single line:

```
Arrays.sort(movieTimes);
```

Note that this will fail until you fill up your theater with 20 movies (or declare it as a miniplex that holds only 5 movies).

Sorting arrays of objects using compareTo()

Solution

Problem