Custom sorting classes

iamthwee 0 Tallied Votes 353 Views Share

How to sort a class by their various attributes in C++

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

class Student
{
public:
   string name;
   double tuition;
};

//This functions sort by name
bool SortStudentByName ( const Student& left, const Student& right )
{
   //Here you can define whatever the sort criterion
   //needs to be. It can be as complicated as you wish

   if ( left.name > right.name )
   {
      return false;
   }
   else if ( left.name < right.name )
   {
      return true;
   }
   //else //i.e if both are equal

}

//This function sorts by tuitions fees
bool SortStudentByTute ( const Student& left, const Student& right )
{
   if ( left.tuition > right.tuition )
   {
      return false;
   }
   else if ( left.tuition < right.tuition )
   {
      return true;
   }
}

int main()
{
   Student myStudent [3]; //create an array of objects

   myStudent[0].name = "sarah";
   myStudent[0].tuition = 10.2;

   myStudent[1].name = "carry";
   myStudent[1].tuition = 11.2;

   myStudent[2].name = "zog";
   myStudent[2].tuition = 3;

   // call the sort like this (assuming array has size of 3):

   cout << "sorting by tutition fees\n";
   std::sort ( myStudent, myStudent + 3, SortStudentByTute );

   cout << myStudent[0].name << " " << myStudent[0].tuition << endl;
   cout << myStudent[1].name << " " << myStudent[1].tuition << endl;
   cout << myStudent[2].name << " " << myStudent[2].tuition << endl;

   //--------------------------------------------------------

   cout << "\nsorting by names\n";

   std::sort ( myStudent, myStudent + 3, SortStudentByName );

   cout << myStudent[0].name << " " << myStudent[0].tuition << endl;
   cout << myStudent[1].name << " " << myStudent[1].tuition << endl;
   cout << myStudent[2].name << " " << myStudent[2].tuition << endl;

   // Or use a vector instead of the array and sort like this:
   //std::sort(myStudentVec.begin(), myStudentVec.end(), SortStudentByName);
 
   cin.get();
}