The exception message is actually pretty descriptive. The contract it mentions is transitivity: if A > B and B > C then for any A, B and C: A > C. I checked it with paper and pencil and your code seems to have few holes:
if (card1.getRarity() < card2.getRarity()) {
return 1;
you do not return -1 if card1.getRarity() > card2.getRarity().
if (card1.getId() == card2.getId()) {
//…
}
return -1;
You return -1 if ids aren’t equal. You should return -1 or 1 depending on which id was bigger.
Take a look at this. Apart from being much more readable, I think it should actually work:
if (card1.getSet() > card2.getSet()) {
return 1;
}
if (card1.getSet() < card2.getSet()) {
return -1;
};
if (card1.getRarity() < card2.getRarity()) {
return 1;
}
if (card1.getRarity() > card2.getRarity()) {
return -1;
}
if (card1.getId() > card2.getId()) {
return 1;
}
if (card1.getId() < card2.getId()) {
return -1;
}
return cardType - item.getCardType(); //watch out for overflow!
You can use the following class to pinpoint transitivity bugs in your Comparators:
/**
* @author Gili Tzabari
*/
public final class Comparators
{
/**
* Verify that a comparator is transitive.
*
* @param
* @param comparator the comparator to test
* @param elements the elements to test against
* @throws AssertionError if the comparator is not transitive
*/
public static
{
for (T first: elements)
{
for (T second: elements)
{
int result1 = comparator.compare(first, second);
int result2 = comparator.compare(second, first);
if (result1 != -result2)
{
// Uncomment the following line to step through the failed case
//comparator.compare(first, second);
throw new AssertionError(“compare(” + first + “, ” + second + “) == ” + result1 +
” but swapping the parameters returns ” + result2);
}
}
}
for (T first: elements)
{
for (T second: elements)
{
int firstGreaterThanSecond = comparator.compare(first, second);
if (firstGreaterThanSecond <= 0)
continue;
for (T third: elements)
{
int secondGreaterThanThird = comparator.compare(second, third);
if (secondGreaterThanThird <= 0)
continue;
int firstGreaterThanThird = comparator.compare(first, third);
if (firstGreaterThanThird <= 0)
{
// Uncomment the following line to step through the failed case
//comparator.compare(first, third);
throw new AssertionError("compare(" + first + ", " + second + ") > 0, ” +
“compare(” + second + “, ” + third + “) > 0, but compare(” + first + “, ” + third + “) == ” +
firstGreaterThanThird);
}
}
}
}
}
/**
* Prevent construction.
*/
private Comparators()
{
}
}
Simply invoke Comparators.verifyTransitivity(myComparator, myCollection) in front of the code that fails.