Groovy Goodness: Using the OrderBy Comparator

The OrderBy class in Groovy implements the Comparator interface. We provide one or more closures to an OrderBy object, which are executed for comparing values. We can use this object whenever we need a comparator, for example if we invoke the sort() method on a collection.

class Language {
    String name
    boolean dynamic
    String toString() { "name: $name, dynamic: $dynamic" }
}

def languages = [
    new Language(name: 'Groovy', dynamic: true),
    new Language(name: 'Java', dynamic: false),
    new Language(name: 'Clojure', dynamic: true)
]

// We order first on dynamic property and then name property.
def orderByDynamicAndName = new OrderBy([{ it.dynamic }, { it.name }])
def sortedLanguages = languages.sort(orderByDynamicAndName)

assert 'Java' == sortedLanguages[0].name
assert !sortedLanguages[0].dynamic
assert 'Clojure' == sortedLanguages[1].name 
assert 'Groovy' == sortedLanguages[2].name
assert sortedLanguages[1].dynamic && sortedLanguages[2].dynamic