.min()

The Collections.min() method returns the minimum 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 minimum element via natural ordering.
myMax = Collections.min(myList);

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

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

Example

The following example creates an ArrayList and then uses Collections.min() 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.min(food));
   food.remove("Cabbage");
   System.out.println(Collections.min(food));
 }
}

This will output the following:

Cabbage
Pizza