Sorting with Custom Comparators

C++

C++

A C++ struct is the same as a class in C++, but all members are public by default.

1#include <bits/stdc++.h>
2using namespace std;
3
4struct Edge {
5    int a,b,w;
6};
7
8/* alternatively,
9class Edge {
10    public:

Java

1import java.util.*;
2
3public class Sol {
4    static class Edge {
5        int a,b,w;
6        public Edge(int _a, int _b, int _w) { a = _a; b = _b; w = _w; }
7    }
8    public static void main(String[] args) {
9        int M = 4;
10        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

Python

1class Edge:
2    def __init__(self, a, b, w):
3        self.a = a
4        self.b = b
5        self.w = w
6
7v = []
8M = 4
9for i in range(M):
10    a,b,w = map(int,input().split())

C++

What a comparator does is compare two objects as follows, based on our comparison criteria:

• If object $x$ is less than object $y$, return true
• If object $x$ is greater than or equal to object $y$, return false

Essentially, the comparator determines whether object $x$ belongs to the left of object $y$ in a sorted ordering. A comparator must return false for two identical objects (not doing so results in undefined behavior and potentially a runtime error).

In addition to returning the correct answer, comparators should also satisfy the following conditions:

• The function must be consistent with respect to reversing the order of the arguments: if $x\ne y$ and compare(x, y) is true, then compare(y, x) should be false and vice versa.
• The function must be transitive. If compare(x, y) is true and compare(y, z) is true, then compare(x, z) should also be true. If the first two compare functions both return false, the third must also return false.

Method 1: Overloading the Less Than Operator

This is the easiest to implement. However, it only works for objects (not primitives) and it doesn't allow you to define multiple ways to compare the same type of class.

In the context of Wormhole Sort (note the use of const Edge&):

1#include <bits/stdc++.h>
2using namespace std;
3
4struct Edge {
5    int a,b,w;
6    bool operator<(const Edge& y) { return w < y.w; }
7};
8
9int main() {
10    int M = 4;

We can also overload the operator outside of the class:

1struct Edge {
2    int a,b,w;
3};
4bool operator<(const Edge& x, const Edge& y) { return x.w < y.w; }

or within it using friend:

1struct Edge {
2    int a,b,w;
3    friend bool operator<(const Edge& x, const Edge& y) { return x.w < y.w; }
4};

Method 2: Comparison Function

This works for both objects and primitives, and you can declare many different comparators for the same object.

1#include <bits/stdc++.h>
2using namespace std;
3
4struct Edge {
5    int a,b,w;
6};
7
8bool cmp(const Edge& x, const Edge& y) { return x.w < y.w; }
9
10int main() {

We can also use lambda expressions in C++11 or above:

1sort(begin(v),end(v),[](const Edge& x, const Edge& y) { return x.w < y.w; });

Java

What a Comparator does is compare two objects as follows, based on our comparison criteria:

• If object $x$ is less than object $y$, return a negative integer.
• If object $x$ is greater than object $y$, return a positive integer.
• If object $x$ is equal to object $y$, return 0.

In addition to returning the correct number, comparators should also satisfy the following conditions:

• The function must be consistent with respect to reversing the order of the arguments: if compare(x, y) is positive, then compare(y, x) should be negative and vice versa.
• The function must be transitive. If compare(x, y) > 0 and compare(y, z) > 0, then compare(x, z) > 0. Same applies if the compare functions return negative numbers.
• Equality must be consistent. If compare(x, y) = 0, then compare(x, z) and compare(y, z) must both be positive, both negative, or both zero. Note that they don't have to be equal, they just need to have the same sign.

Java has default functions for comparing int, long, double types. The Integer.compare(), Long.compare(), and Double.compare() functions take two arguments $x$ and $y$ and compare them as described above.

There are two ways of implementing this in Java: Comparable, and Comparator. They essentially serve the same purpose, but Comparable is generally easier and shorter to code. Comparable is a function implemented within the class containing the custom object, while Comparator is its own class.

Method 1: Comparable

We'll need to put implements Comparable<Edge> into the heading of the class. Furthermore, we'll need to implement the compareTo method. Essentially, compareTo(x) is the compare function that we described above, with the object itself as the first argument, or compare(self, x).

When using Comparable, we can just call Arrays.sort(arr) or Collections.sort(list) on the array or list as usual.

1import java.util.*;
2
3public class Sol {
4    static class Edge implements Comparable<Edge> {
5        int a,b,w;
6        public Edge(int _a, int _b, int _w) { a = _a; b = _b; w = _w; }
7        public int compareTo(Edge y) { return Integer.compare(w,y.w); }
8    }
9    public static void main(String[] args) {
10        int M = 4;

Method 2: Comparator

If instead we choose to use Comparator, we'll need to declare a second class that implements Comparator<Edge>:

1import java.util.*;
2
3public class Sol {
4    static class Edge {
5        int a,b,w;
6        public Edge(int _a, int _b, int _w) { a = _a; b = _b; w = _w; }
7    }
8    static class Comp implements Comparator<Edge> {
9        public int compare(Edge a, Edge b) {
10            return Integer.compare(a.w, b.w);

When using Comparator, the syntax for using the built-in sorting function requires a second argument: Arrays.sort(arr, new Comp()), or Collections.sort(list, new Comp()).

Python

Defining Less Than Operator

1class Edge:
2    def __init__(self, a, b, w):
3        self.a = a
4        self.b = b
5        self.w = w
6    def __lt__(self, other): # lt means less than
7        return self.w < other.w
8
9v = []
10M = 4

Key Function

This method maps an object to another comparable datatype with which to be sorted. This is the preferred method if you are only sorting something once. In this case we map edges to their weights.

1class Edge:
2    def __init__(self, a, b, w):
3        self.a = a
4        self.b = b
5        self.w = w
6
7v = []
8M = 4
9for i in range(M):
10    a,b,w = map(int,input().split())

Comparison Function

A comparison function in Python must satisfy the same properties as a comparator in Java. Note that old-style cmp functions are no longer supported, so the comparison function must be converted into a key function with cmp_to_key. Most of the time, it is better to use the key function, but in the rare case that the comparison function is not easily represented as a key function, we can use this.

1from functools import cmp_to_key
2
3class Edge:
4    def __init__(self, a, b, w):
5        self.a = a
6        self.b = b
7        self.w = w
8
9v = []
10M = 4

C++

1struct Edge {
2    int a,b,w;
3    bool operator<(const Edge& y) {
4        if (w != y.w) return w < y.w;
5        return a < y.a;
6    }
7};

Java

1static class Edge implements Comparable<Edge> {
2    int a,b,w;
3    public Edge(int _a, int _b, int _w) { a = _a; b = _b; w = _w; }
4    public int compareTo(Edge y) {
5        if (w != y.w) return Integer.compare(w,y.w);
6        return Integer.compare(a,y.a);
7    }
8}

Python

In Python, tuples have a natural order based on their elements in order. We can take advantage of this to write a comparator:

1class Edge:
2    def __init__(self, a, b, w):
3        self.a = a
4        self.b = b
5        self.w = w
6    def __lt__(self, other): # lt means less than
7        return (self.w, self.a) < (other.w, other.a)

This also gives an easy way to write a key function to sort in this way:

1edges: list[Edge]
2edges.sort(key=lambda edge: (edge.w, edge.a))

C++

Java

With Java, we can implement a comparator for arrays of arbitrary length (although this might be more confusing than creating a separate class).

1import java.util.*;
2
3public class Sol {
4    static class Comp implements Comparator<int[]> {
5        public int compare(int[] a, int[] b){
6            for (int i = 0; i < a.length; ++i)
7                if (a[i] != b[i]) return Integer.compare(a[i],b[i]);
8            return 0;
9        }
10    }

Python