Question

I want to create a class that exends Comparator. This comparator will compare two arrays, where the arrays can contain anything that is comparable. Something that would let me do things like this:

comparator.compare(new Integer[] {1,2}, new Integer[] {3,4,5});

the type of the parameters are not necessarily Integer[]. They could be an array of anything.

Is there any way I can create such a class using generics? Or should my comparator receive objects instead. If it must receive objects, how can I check if it is an array and get elements from inside it?

Answer 1

How about using the array itself as the type parameter to Comparator?

public class ArrayComparator<T extends Comparable<? super T>> implements
        Comparator<T[]> {
    @Override
    public int compare(T[] o1, T[] o2) {
        // TODO
    }
}