Thread: how to merge java objects with effective dates

Hi,
I created Customer.java with two fields effective start date and effective end date.
Now i have a List<Customer>, i need to merge the all the customer objects into one object with following information:
a. min(effective start date)
b. max (effective end date)

Please help me to arrive logic.

Thanks in advance,
esl

How are the dates stored? Date, String, int, long?

Merging all objects into one doens't make sense Why not just have a min and max variable to hold the data.

Date minDate = findMinDate();
Date maxDate = findMaxDate();

Then those 2 methods would iterate over the Collection of Customer objects and find the approriate dates with a little logic.

Dates are java.util.Date

Customer also has other attributes and so i need to combine into one.

Another approach could be to use the Collections sort() method with you own Comparator class to set the order that you want.