Thread: Sorting a deck of cards by suite or rank.

My intentions are to provide a sorting function. The deck of cards can be sorted either by rank or suite. I have had a look at the comparable interface to provide this but it is suitable only for numeric sorting and not for String sorting. I have provided the 2 classes below:

package com.base.net;
 
public class Card
{
     private String rank; // face of card ("Ace", "2", "Deuce", ...)
     private String suit; // suit of card ("Hearts", "Diamonds", ...)
 
     // two-argument constructor initializes card's face and suit
     public Card( String cardRank, String cardSuite)
     {
        rank = cardRank; // initialize face of card
        suit = cardSuite; // initialize suit of card
     } // end two-argument Card constructor
 
 
     //getter and setter methods
     public String getRank() 
     {
		return rank;
	 }
 
	 public void setRank(String rank) 
	 {
		this.rank = rank;
	 }
 
	 public String getSuit() 
	 {
		return suit;
	 }
 
	 public void setSuit(String suit) 
	 {
		this.suit = suit;
	 }
 
	 /*
	 public int compareTo(Card crd) {
 
         if (crd instanceof Card) {
 
             Card card = (Card) crd;
             if (this.rank > card.getRank())
                 return 1;
             else if (this.rank < card.getRank())
                 return -1;
         }
         return 0;
     }
	 */
 
	 // return String representation of Card
     public String toString()               
     {                                      
        return rank + " of " + suit;        
     } // end method toString               
  } // end class Card

package com.base.net;
 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;
 
public class Deck
{
	private final String [] suite = {"Clubs", "Diamonds", "Hearts", "Spades"};
	private final String [] rank = {"Ace","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","10","Jack","Queen","King"};
	private static List<Object> deckofcards = new ArrayList<Object>();
 
	public Deck()
	{
		for(int i=0; i<suite.length; i++)
		{
			for(int j=0; j<rank.length; j++)
			{	
				deckofcards.add(new Card(rank[j],suite[i]));
			}
		}
	}
 
	public List getDeckofcards() 
	{
		return deckofcards;
	}
 
	public int getSuiteSize()
	{
		return suite.length;
	}
 
	public int getRankSize()
	{
		return rank.length;
	}
 
	public int getDeckSize()
	{
		return deckofcards.size();
	}
 
	public void viewDeck()
	{
		try
		{
			Iterator iter = deckofcards.iterator();
			while (iter.hasNext()) 
			{
			      System.out.println(iter.next());
			}
		}
		catch (Exception e)
		{
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
 
	public void shuffle()
	{
		// This method converts a list of objects into an array.
		// Manipulates the array (shuffling).
		// Converts the array back to a list (S.A.T - Simple As That).
		try
		{
			Object [] cards = deckofcards.toArray();
			Random randomNumbers = new Random();
			int currentCard = 0; // reinitialize currentCard
 
			for ( int first = 0; first < cards.length; first++ )
			{
 
				int second = randomNumbers.nextInt( cards.length );
 
				Object temp = cards[ first ];     
				cards[ first ] = cards[ second ];
				cards[ second ] = temp;         
			} 
			deckofcards = Arrays.asList(cards);
		}
		catch (Exception e)
		{
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
 
	public void pickRandomCard()
	{
		try
		{
			Random randomNumbers = new Random();
			int rand = randomNumbers.nextInt( deckofcards.size() );
			System.out.println(deckofcards.get(rand).toString());
		}
		catch (Exception e)
		{
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
 
	public void resetCards()
	{
		deckofcards = null;
	}
 
	protected void finalise()
	{
		deckofcards = null;
		System.gc();
	}
 
	public void orderDeckofCards(Deck d)
	{
 
	}
 
	public static void main(String args[])
	{
		Deck d = new Deck();
		//d.shuffle();
		d.viewDeck();
		//d.pickRandomCard();
		//d.orderDeckbySuite();
	}
}

Any help on this would be much and greatly appreciated. Many Thanks to your contribution.