Java – Making your own class ‘Comparable’

comparablejava

I followed a tutorial, but failed to make my Country class Comparable for my BST.

Main:

BinarySearchTree A = new BinarySearchTree();
Country a = new Country("Romania", "Bucharest", 1112);
A.insert(a);

Country class:

public int compareTo(Object anotherCountry) throws ClassCastException {
    if (!(anotherCountry instanceof Country))
        throw new ClassCastException("A Country object expected.");
    String anotherCountryName = ((Country) anotherCountry).getName();  
    int i = this.name.compareTo(anotherCountryName);
    if(i < 0){
        return -1;
    } else {
        return 0;
    }
}

error:

@Override
public int compareTo(Object anotherCountry) throws ClassCastException {
    if (!(anotherCountry instanceof Country))
      throw new ClassCastException("A Country object expected.");
    String anotherCountryName = ((Country) anotherCountry).getName();  
    return this.name.compareTo(anotherCountryName);

Description Resource    Path    Location    Type

Name clash: The method compareTo(Object) of type Country has the same erasure as compareTo(T) of type Comparable but does not override it Country.java /Lab2_prob 4/src line 17 Java Problem

Description Resource    Path    Location    Type
The method compareTo(Object) of type Country must override or implement a supertype method  Country.java    /Lab2_prob 4/src    line 17 Java Problem

and class:

public class Country implements Comparable<Country>{
    private String name;
    private String capital;
    private int area;

Description Resource    Path    Location    Type

The type Country must implement the inherited abstract method Comparable.compareTo(Country) Country.java /Lab2_prob 4/src line 2 Java Problem

Best Answer

Your Country class should implement Comparable:

public class Country implements Comparable<Country>

Then your compareTo method should look like this:

@Override
public int compareTo(Country anotherCountry) {
    return this.name.compareTo(anotherCountry.getName());
}

Note the signature of compareTo. The parameter can (and must) be of type Country, not Object. This is required because of the generic type parameter on Comparable. The upside is you don't have to check the type anymore. The downside is you can only compare Country to other Country objects (or its subtypes), but in most cases this is what you want anyway. If not you have to change the type parameter, e.g. if you use Comparable<Object> the signature of compareTo can be Object again. You can read more about generics here.

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Update:

Some 10 years later perhaps the best way to test a private method, or any inaccessible member, is via @Jailbreak from the Manifold framework.
@Jailbreak Foo foo = new Foo();
// Direct, *type-safe* access to *all* foo's members
foo.privateMethod(x, y, z);
foo.privateField = value;
This way your code remains type-safe and readable. No design compromises, no overexposing methods and fields for the sake of tests.

If you have somewhat of a legacy Java application, and you're not allowed to change the visibility of your methods, the best way to test private methods is to use reflection.

Internally we're using helpers to get/set private and private static variables as well as invoke private and private static methods. The following patterns will let you do pretty much anything related to the private methods and fields. Of course, you can't change private static final variables through reflection.

Method method = TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses);
method.setAccessible(true);
return method.invoke(targetObject, argObjects);

And for fields:

Field field = TargetClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(object, value);

Notes:
1. TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses) lets you look into private methods. The same thing applies for getDeclaredField.
2. The setAccessible(true) is required to play around with privates.

Java inner class and static nested class

From the Java Tutorial:

Nested classes are divided into two categories: static and non-static. Nested classes that are declared static are simply called static nested classes. Non-static nested classes are called inner classes.

Static nested classes are accessed using the enclosing class name:

OuterClass.StaticNestedClass

For example, to create an object for the static nested class, use this syntax:

OuterClass.StaticNestedClass nestedObject = new OuterClass.StaticNestedClass();

Objects that are instances of an inner class exist within an instance of the outer class. Consider the following classes:

class OuterClass {
    ...
    class InnerClass {
        ...
    }
}

An instance of InnerClass can exist only within an instance of OuterClass and has direct access to the methods and fields of its enclosing instance.

To instantiate an inner class, you must first instantiate the outer class. Then, create the inner object within the outer object with this syntax:

OuterClass outerObject = new OuterClass()
OuterClass.InnerClass innerObject = outerObject.new InnerClass();

see: Java Tutorial - Nested Classes

For completeness note that there is also such a thing as an inner class without an enclosing instance:

class A {
  int t() { return 1; }
  static A a =  new A() { int t() { return 2; } };
}

Here, new A() { ... } is an inner class defined in a static context and does not have an enclosing instance.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Java inner class and static nested class

Related Topic