Sorting by type first then alphabetically

The script below ensures that items are sorted by type first then by alphabetical order.

	def list = [
	[type:"error", value:"yellow"],
	[type:"normal", value:"zippy"],
	[type:"normal", value:"awesome"],
	[type:"error", value:"big"],
	]
	list.sort { a, b ->
	if (a.type.equals("error") != b.type.equals("error")) {
	return b.type.equals("error") <=> a.type.equals("error")
	} else {
	return a.value <=> b.value
	}
	}
	return list​

view raw sortByTypeTheAlphabetically.groovy hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The spaceship operator

Just ran into this and I thought it was really cool.

So the spaceship operator (<=>) delegates to the compareTo method:

assert (1 <=> 1) == 0
assert (1 <=> 2) == -1
assert (2 <=> 1) == 1
assert ('a' <=> 'z') == -1

For more checkout http://groovy-lang.org/operators.html