How to sort a LinkedList in Java? Example Tutorial

Since LinkedList implements the java.util.List interface, you can sort the LinkedList by using Collections.sort() method, just like you sort an ArrayList. Since LinkedList class implements the linked list data structure which doesn't provide random access based upon the index, sorting is quite expensive. In order to access any element, you need to first traverse through that element which is O(n) operator. This method uses an efficient strategy to handle this scenario. It first copies the contents of LinkedList to an array, sorts the array and copies it back. So it's as efficient as sorting an ArrayList. By default Collections.sort() arrange elements of linked list into their natural order of sorting but it also accepts a Comparator, which can be used to sort elements in custom order. Java 8 also introduced a new sort() method on the java.util.List interface itself, which means you no longer need Collections.sort() to sort a LinkedList, you can do directly by calling the LinkedList.sort() method in Java 8. See Java SE 8 for Really Impatient to learn more about new features of Java 8. In this article, I'll show you a couple of examples of sorting LinkedList in Java.

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