Java .max()

The Collections.max() method returns the maximum member of a List based on natural ordering or based on a Comparator. To use natural ordering, the elements of the List must implement the Comparable interface.

Syntax

import java.util.*;

// This provides the maximum element via natural ordering
myMax = Collections.max(myList);

// This provides the maximum element via a Comparator
myMax = Collections.max(myList, myComparator);

Both methods return the maximum element of myList. The first determines the maximum element using the natural ordering of the elements. The second uses myComparator to determine the maximum.

Example

The following example creates an ArrayList and then uses Collections.max() to return some elements:

import java.util.*;

public class Main {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
   ArrayList<String> food = new ArrayList<String>();
   food.add("Cabbage");
   food.add("Pizza");
   food.add("Sausage");
   food.add("Potatoes");
   food.add("Salad");

   System.out.println(Collections.max(food));
   food.remove("Sausage");
   System.out.println(Collections.max(food));
 }
}

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This will output the following:

Sausage
Salad

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