Hello! In my design I have a relation like this: 1. DataStorage object. This object decides how to store the data, wether in a Tree or Linked list or Vectro etc... It also decides how much data to store in this DataStorage object. For eg. it can store 1 object or 2 or 3, all up to the programmer. It stores the objects as a Pair - So the second data in the Pair might in turn also be a Pair... 2. Sorter object. This object sorts a DataStorage object. But I want it to be able to sort on the object of my choice from the DataStorage object. In one case I might want to sort on the 1''st object but in another case I might want to store on the 2''nd object or on the 3''rd. So basically what I need is to do something like this:

//aka C++ syntax...

sort(&Pair::first, dataStorageObject);
sort(&Pair::second, dataStorageObject);

//So I want to be able to send as an argument which data to sort

//on, like in the C++ pointer to member variant.

I know I could write a new sort function for each data I want to sort on, but thats what I want to eliminate... Thx for the help guys!

If you use standard Java classes for your collection, you can benefit from java.util.Collections.sort() : you''ll simply need to create a custom Comparator that compares either the first or the second object of your pairs.

quote:Original post by paulsdsrubbish
Easy misconception - ALL your own classes (anything that isn''t a primitive) are ALWAYS passed by reference. Primitives (eg ints) are always passed by value. To do swap functions you have to wrap primitives; eg int == Integer.

This means a swap function is possible with 2 wrapped up Integers, but impossible with two ints.

Which is not really a big loss, it just removes a few headaches.