sorting - How to sort csv file by two columns in java?

Question

How to sort CSV file by two columns? Right now I am able to sort it by one column. I need to sort it by first two columns. How to do it? Here is the code that I am using for sorting it by its first column:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.TreeMap;

public class Practice {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("sample-input.csv"));
        Map<String, List<String>> map = new TreeMap<String, List<String>>();
        String line = reader.readLine();//read header
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            String key = getField(line);
            List<String> l = map.get(key);
            if (l == null) {
                l = new LinkedList<String>();
                map.put(key, l);
            }
            l.add(line);
        }

        reader.close();
        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter("output.csv");
        writer.write("Symbol, Exchange, Minimum, Average, Maximum, Total
");
        for (List<String> list : map.values()) {
            for (String val : list) {
                writer.write(val);
                writer.write("
");
            }
        }
        writer.close();
    }

    private static String getField(String line) {
        return line.split(",")[0];
        // extract value you want to sort on
    }
}

EDIT: The output after two column sort becomes like:

ABC,X,0.10,10
ABC,X,0.09,20
ABC,X,0.11,10
ABC,X,0.11,20
ABC,X,0.10,10
ABC,Y,0.09,10
ABC,Y,0.08,10
ABC,Z,0.12,15
ABC,Z,0.10,15
DEF,X,0.17,10
DEF,X,0.14,10
DEF,Y,0.15,15
DEF,Y,0.15,15
DEF,Y,0.17,15
DEF,Y,0.16,15
DEF,Y,0.17,15
DEF,Z,0.14,10
DEF,Z,0.15,10

I need the output like this:

ABC,X,0.09,0.11
ABC,X,0.09,0.11
ABC,X,0.09,0.11
ABC,X,0.09,0.11
ABC,X,0.09,0.11
ABC,Y,0.08,0.9
ABC,Y,0.08,0.9
ABC,Z,0.10,0.12
ABC,Z,0.10,0.12
DEF,X,0.14,0.17
DEF,X,0.14,0.17
DEF,Y,0.15,0.17
DEF,Y,0.15,0.17
DEF,Y,0.15,0.17
DEF,Y,0.15,0.17
DEF,Y,0.15,0.17
DEF,Z,0.14,0.15
DEF,Z,0.14,0.15

But, I want the third column to display the minimum of the values for X, then min value for Y, and then Z from the values that are currently being displayed in the third column.

Answer 1

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

Reading a CSV and sorting it by (the String contents of) one or more columns is a very generic operation. And it is independent of the domain.

It is possible to implement a Comparator that simply picks the strings at several indices of a List<String>, and compares the values at these indices lexicographically. With this Comparator, one can sort any List<List<String>> that was read from a CSV file.

Here is a simple example. It can be used to sort any CSV file based on the string contents 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+"
");
        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("
");
        }
        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 want more flexibility regarding the sort order of individual columns, there are different options. Which one is the "best" one largely depends on how you want to "assemble" the actual comparator - that is, how you want to define which column should be sorted in which order. But one simple example is shown here:

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+"
");
        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("
");
        }
        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));
    }

}