Java does not allow a function to be passed as a function argument, and its various types must be compared in different ways:

• The primitive types int, long, float and double are compared using < and >. They cannot use .compareTo() .

• String uses .compareTo(); it cannot use < and >.

• An application object type can be given a .compareTo() method, but that allows only one way of sorting.

• A Comparator can be passed as a function argument, and this allows a custom comparison method.

  
  public static void
    mySort( AnyType[] a,
            Comparator<? super AnyType> cmp) {...}
  
  class MyOrder implements Comparator<MyObject>
    {
    public int compare(MyObject x, MyObject y)
      { return ( x.property() - y.property() ); }}
  

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