Lets you sort fields according to their names.

protected Vector aAliases = null;
private   String aName    = "John Doo";
public    List   aValues  = new ArrayList();

Please note that in the above example only the name is significant for determining the order to demonstrate the purpose.

Lets you sort fields according to their object type.

public    List   aValues  = new ArrayList();
private   String aName    = "John Doo";
protected Vector aAliases = null;

Please note that in the above example only the object type is significant for determining the order to demonstrate the purpose.

Lets you sort fields according to their modifiers.

public    List   aValues  = new ArrayList();
protected Vector aAliases = null;
private   String aName    = "John Doo";

Please note that in the above example only the modifiers are significant for determining the order to demonstrate the purpose.

To further refine the way sorting is applied for modifiers, select the "Modifiers" entry, press the Configure... button to define what modifiers should be significant and adjust the order in which testing should be applied.

Configuration for modifiers is explained in detail in the section called "Modifiers".

Default constructor means the single parameter-less constructor every class may have. If you want to ensure a specific location for default constructors, check this entry and move it to the desired position.

public class Foo {

    protected Foo() {
        ...
    }
}

Copy constructors are those constructors that take a single parameter of the same type as the class itself. If you want to ensure a specific location for copy constructors, check this entry and move it to the desired position.

public class Foo {

    protected Foo(Foo rFoo) {
        ...
    }
}

Lets you sort constructors according to the number of parameters. Those whose number is smaller will be placed above the others.

public class Foo {

    protected Foo() {
        ...
    }

    private Foo(Foo rFoo) {
        ...
    }

    public Foo(int param1, String param2) {
        ...
    }
}

Please note that in the above example only the parameter count is significant for determining the order to demonstrate the purpose.

To further refine the way sorting is applied for modifiers, select the "Modifiers" entry, press the Configure... button to define what modifiers should be significant and adjust the order in which testing should be applied.

public class Foo {

    public Foo(int param1, String param2) {
        ...
    }

    protected Foo() {
        ...
    }

    private Foo(Foo rFoo) {
        ...
    }
}

Please note that in the above example only the modifiers are significant for determining the order to demonstrate the purpose.

Configuration for modifiers is explained in detail in the section called "Modifiers".

Bean pattern refers to the Java Bean specification naming convention that requires accessor and mutator methods to begin with either the set, get or is prefixes.

Figure 2.49. Configure Sorting Order of Java Bean Methods

You can control the order in which Java Bean methods and ordinary methods appear by selecting the entry and press the Configure... button. Adjust the order of the different elements in the list component of the new dialog and press Apply. The "Ordinary method" entry refers to all non-Bean methods.

Normally bean pattern sorting means that all methods of one type (getters, boolean getters, setters, ordinary methods) are grouped together according to the specified order. Enabling this option causes all methods with similar names to be grouped together, i.e. bean methods and ordinary methods may be mixed, but all bean methods for one property stay together.

Similar methods are determined by stripping the bean prefix and comparing the resulting method names. Similar methods are grouped together according to the specified order (getters, boolean getters, setters, ordinary methods).

Since 1.5

public void aaaaaa() {}

public void bbbbbb() {}

public void cccccc() {}

public Object getAaaaaa() {}

public Object getBbbbbb() {}

public Object getCccccc() {}

public boolean isAaaaaa() {}

public boolean isBbbbbb() {}

public boolean isCccccc() {}

public void setAaaaaa() {}

public void setBbbbbb() {}

public void setCccccc() {}

public void aaaaaa() {}

public Object getAaaaaa() {}

public boolean isAaaaaa() {}

public void setAaaaaa() {}

public void bbbbbb() {}

public Object getBbbbbb() {}

public boolean isBbbbbb() {}

public void setBbbbbb() {}

public void cccccc() {}

public Object getCccccc() {}

public boolean isCccccc() {}

public void setCccccc() {}

Grouping similar methods will let you group all bean methods for one property together, but the bean methods are otherwise still mixed with ordinary methods. If you instead prefer to have all> bean methods grouped together, you can enable this option to build one large block with all bean methods.

Since 1.8

public void aaaaaa() {}

public Object getAaaaaa() {}

public boolean isAaaaaa() {}

public void setAaaaaa() {}

public void bbbbbb() {}

public Object getBbbbbb() {}

public boolean isBbbbbb() {}

public void setBbbbbb() {}

public void cccccc() {}

public Object getCccccc() {}

public boolean isCccccc() {}

public void setCccccc() {}

public Object getAaaaaa() {}

public boolean isAaaaaa() {}

public void setAaaaaa() {}

public Object getBbbbbb() {}

public boolean isBbbbbb() {}

public void setBbbbbb() {}

public Object getCccccc() {}

public boolean isCccccc() {}

public void setCccccc() {}

public void aaaaaa() {}

public void bbbbbb() {}

public void cccccc() {}

Lets you define arbitrary regular expressions to match method signatures to specify absolute positions for specific methods.

Figure 2.50. Configure Regular Expression Sorting

Matching is performed against a simplified signature: only the modifiers, return type and method name are used.

public boolean equals(Object rOther) {
    ...
}

The above method declaration would yield the following signature: public boolean equals

To add a new regular expression, press the Add... button.

Figure 2.51. Add Regular Expression

Enter the regular expression into the Regex textfield and press the Apply... button to apply the addition.

If you want to test the regular expression before you submit it, enter a test string in the String field and press the Test button to perform pattern matching.

To remove an existing regular expression, select the expression you want to remove and press the Remove button.

To change an existing regular expression, select the expression you want to change and press the Change... button.

Figure 2.52. Change Regular Expression

Adjust the regular expression in the Regex textfield and press the Apply... button to apply the change.

If you want to test the regular expression before you submit it, enter a test string in the String field and press the Test button to perform pattern matching.

As it might not always be sufficient to rely on method signature information alone, developers can take total control over method ordering using special Javadoc tags.

Please note that Javadoc formatting must be enabled for this feature to work!

In order to have methods grouped by purpose, check the Custom entry in the upper list of the dialog, move it to the top and utilize two custom Javadoc tags in your method commentary.

In your method declaration comments, you need to add the Javadoc standalone tag @jalopy.group followed by a logical group name. This name can be freely chosen and defines the group a method belongs to.

 /**
  * Returns the value of the Foo property.
  *
  * @jalopy.group  Accessors
  */
  public int getFoo () {
      ...
  }

Then you specify the order of methods with the @jalopy.group-order (you can use @jalopy.group_order to circumvent a bug in the Sun 1.4.2 Javadoc implementation) in the class or interface Javadoc comment. Simply place all group names defined with @jalopy.group tags in the desired order here and all methods will be sorted accordingly.

There is no special requirement on how the logical group names should be written, but it is good practice to separate them by commas.

 /**
  * I want methods ordered by value provided in the @jalopy.group tag of
  * each method in this order. If the method doesn't have a @jalopy.group tag,
  * fall back on project defaults.
  *
  * @jalopy.group-order  Constructors,Queries,Accessors
  */
class Foo {
    ...
}

This works recursively for all methods of a compilation unit, i.e. for inner classes, Jalopy first checks the inner class declaration comment and if no @jalopy.group-order tag can be found, it recursively searches all parent class/interface declarations of the unit.

Please note that all methods that have no custom group information associated are placed below the ones with grouping tags. Within each group the methods are sorted according to the normal criteria (access modifier, name, parameter count).

A group name not only defines the sorting order, but is used for separator comments also (Refer to the section called "Comments" for more information on this feature).

Since 1.1

//~ Queries ------------------------------------------------------------

/**
  * This method gets object by primary key
  *
  * @param  inConn  db conn
  * @param  inPK    the primary key
  *
  * @jalopy.group  Queries
  */
public static MyClass getByPK (Connection inConn, Long inPK) {
    ...
}

...

//~ Accessors ------------------------------------------------------------

/**
  * This method returns the Name property.
  *
  * @jalopy.group  Accessors
  */
public String getName (Connection inConn, String inLoginName) {
    ...
}