Question

I have this toString method set up

public String toString (){
    String result;
    result = "Ideal Family";
    result += "\n"+person1.toString();
    result += "\n"+person2.toString();
    result += "\n"+person3.toString();
    result += "\n"+person4.toString();
    result += "\n"+pet1.toString();
    result += "\n"+car1.toString();
    result += "\n"+car2.toString();
    result += "\n"+homeAddress.toString();
    return result;
}

in which I list objects in the order I wish to output them. Is there a way to re-order the list based on values within the objects.
Specefically in the Person Class, to re-order the person objects based on an instance variable, an int.

The Person class takes these parameters

public Person (String personName,String personGender,String personSS,int personAge){
    name = personName;
    ss = personSS;
    age = personAge;
    gender = personGender;
}

Answer 1

First of all, you should be using a collection instead of having four variables. It would have been easier.

But for what you are looking for, create a list of Persons

List<Person> personList = Arrays.asList(person1, person2, person3, person4);

sort the list

Collections.sort(personList, Comparator<Person>() {
    public int compare(Person p1, Person p2) {
        return Integer.valueOf(p1.getAge()).compareTo(p2.getAge());
    }
});

and iterate through the list

for(Person person : personList) {
    result += "\n"+person.toString();   
}