Comparing the values of two generic Numbers

java generics numbers comparable
b_erb picture b_erb · Apr 21, 2010 · Viewed 48.2k times · Source

I want to compare to variables, both of type T extends Number. Now I want to know which of the two variables is greater than the other or equal. Unfortunately I don't know the exact type yet, I only know that it will be a subtype of java.lang.Number. How can I do that?

EDIT: I tried another workaround using TreeSets, which actually worked with natural ordering (of course it works, all subclasses of Number implement Comparable except for AtomicInteger and AtomicLong). Thus I'll lose duplicate values. When using Lists, Collection.sort() will not accept my list due to bound mismatchs. Very unsatisfactory.

Answer

BennyBoy picture BennyBoy · Mar 20, 2012

This should work for all classes that extend Number, and are Comparable to themselves. By adding the & Comparable you allow to remove all the type checks and provides runtime type checks and error throwing for free when compared to Sarmun answer.

class NumberComparator<T extends Number & Comparable> implements Comparator<T> {

    public int compare( T a, T b ) throws ClassCastException {
        return a.compareTo( b );
    }
}

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