How to sort a csv file by two columns in java?

Although it's often a good idea to create classes that serve as the appropriate representations for the domain: In this case, I disagree with the comments.

Reading a CSV and sorting it (content String

) of one or more columns is a very common operation. And it doesn't depend on the domain.

It is possible to implement a Comparator

that simply selects rows with multiple indices a List<String>

and compares the values ​​in those indices lexicographically. With this Comparator

one can sort any List<List<String>>

that was read from the CSV file.

Here's a simple example. It can be used to sort any CSV file based on the content of a row of arbitrary columns.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.io.Writer;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;

public class MultiColumnCsvSort
{
    private static final String COLUMN_SEPARATOR = ",";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream("sample-input.csv");
        List<List<String>> lines = readCsv(inputStream);

        // Create a comparator that sorts primarily by column 0,
        // and if these values are equal, by column 2
        Comparator<List<String>> comparator = createComparator(0, 2);
        Collections.sort(lines, comparator);

        OutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("output.csv");
        String header = "Symbol, Exchange, Minimum, Average, Maximum, Total";
        writeCsv(header, lines, outputStream);        
    }

    private static List<List<String>> readCsv(
        InputStream inputStream) throws IOException
    {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
        List<List<String>> lines = new ArrayList<List<String>>();

        // Skip header
        String line = reader.readLine();

        while (true)
        {
            line = reader.readLine();
            if (line == null)
            {
                break;
            }
            List<String> list = Arrays.asList(line.split(COLUMN_SEPARATOR));
            lines.add(list);
        }
        return lines;
    }

    private static void writeCsv(
        String header, List<List<String>> lines, OutputStream outputStream) 
        throws IOException
    {
        Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream);
        writer.write(header+"\n");
        for (List<String> list : lines)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
            {
                writer.write(list.get(i));
                if (i < list.size() - 1)
                {
                    writer.write(COLUMN_SEPARATOR);
                }
            }
            writer.write("\n");
        }
        writer.close();

    }

    private static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> Comparator<List<T>> 
        createComparator(int... indices)
    {
        return createComparator(MultiColumnCsvSort.<T>naturalOrder(), indices);
    }

    private static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> Comparator<T>
        naturalOrder()
    {
        return new Comparator<T>()
        {
            @Override
            public int compare(T t0, T t1)
            {
                return t0.compareTo(t1);
            }
        };
    }

    private static <T> Comparator<List<T>> createComparator(
        final Comparator<? super T> delegate, final int... indices)
    {
        return new Comparator<List<T>>()
        {
            @Override
            public int compare(List<T> list0, List<T> list1)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < indices.length; i++)
                {
                    T element0 = list0.get(indices[i]);
                    T element1 = list1.get(indices[i]);
                    int n = delegate.compare(element0, element1);
                    if (n != 0)
                    {
                        return n;
                    }
                }
                return 0;
            }
        };
    }
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

Updated a few years later:

If you need more flexibility in the sort order of individual columns, there are different options. Which one is "best" depends a lot on how you want to "assemble" the actual comparator, that is, how you want to determine which column should be sorted in which order. But here's one simple example:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.io.Writer;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;

public class MultiColumnCsvSortExtended
{
    private static final String COLUMN_SEPARATOR = ",";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream("sample-input.csv");
        List<List<String>> lines = readCsv(inputStream);

        // Create a comparator that compares the elements from column 0,
        // in ascending order
        Comparator<List<String>> c0 = createAscendingComparator(0);

        // Create a comparator that compares the elements from column 2,
        // in descending order
        Comparator<List<String>> c1 = createDesendingComparator(2);

        // Create a comparator that compares primarily by using c0,
        // and secondarily by using c1
        Comparator<List<String>> comparator = createComparator(c0, c1);
        Collections.sort(lines, comparator);

        OutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("output.csv");
        String header = "Symbol, Exchange, Minimum, Average";
        writeCsv(header, lines, outputStream);        
    }

    private static List<List<String>> readCsv(
        InputStream inputStream) throws IOException
    {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(inputStream));
        List<List<String>> lines = new ArrayList<List<String>>();

        String line = null;

        // Skip header
        line = reader.readLine();

        while (true)
        {
            line = reader.readLine();
            if (line == null)
            {
                break;
            }
            List<String> list = Arrays.asList(line.split(COLUMN_SEPARATOR));
            lines.add(list);
        }
        return lines;
    }

    private static void writeCsv(
        String header, List<List<String>> lines, OutputStream outputStream) 
        throws IOException
    {
        Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(outputStream);
        writer.write(header+"\n");
        for (List<String> list : lines)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
            {
                writer.write(list.get(i));
                if (i < list.size() - 1)
                {
                    writer.write(COLUMN_SEPARATOR);
                }
            }
            writer.write("\n");
        }
        writer.close();

    }

    @SafeVarargs
    private static <T> Comparator<T>
        createComparator(Comparator<? super T>... delegates)
    {
        return (t0, t1) -> 
        {
            for (Comparator<? super T> delegate : delegates)
            {
                int n = delegate.compare(t0, t1);
                if (n != 0)
                {
                    return n;
                }
            }
            return 0;
        };
    }

    private static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> Comparator<List<T>>
        createAscendingComparator(int index)
    {
        return createListAtIndexComparator(Comparator.naturalOrder(), index);
    }

    private static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> Comparator<List<T>>
        createDesendingComparator(int index)
    {
        return createListAtIndexComparator(Comparator.reverseOrder(), index);
    }

    private static <T> Comparator<List<T>>
        createListAtIndexComparator(Comparator<? super T> delegate, int index)
    {
        return (list0, list1) -> 
            delegate.compare(list0.get(index), list1.get(index));
    }

}