java implement compare on two elements

I am trying to override comparable thusly:

public int compareTo(Object other) {        
    if(other.getlength() > this.getlength()){ 
        return 1;
    } else if (other.getlength() < this.getlength()){
        return -1;
    } else {
        if (other.getVal() > this.getVal()){
            return 1;
        } else {
            return -1;
        }
    }
}

What I want to happen, is for the list to be sorted on the length first, then if the length is the same, I want the those same lengthed items to be sorted (in place) 开发者_C百科on their values. But my implementation is not working correctly. Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?

My results are:

a b  = 3
a b c  = 1
a b c  = 1
a b  = 2
a b  = 1

The results I want are:

a b c  = 1
a b c  = 1
a b  = 3
a b  = 2
a b  = 1

---

Avoid logic where possible. Seriously - where feasible, use arithmetic to avoid if/else's. It tends to be more reliable. In this case:

public int compareTo(Object o) {        
  int ret = other.getlength() - this.getlength();
  if ( ret == 0 ) {
    ret = other.getVal() - this.getVal();
  }
  return ret;
}

---

it is not clear from your remarks that list would be already sorted or not. But you can handle that by sorting the list after comparing there lengths. But on thing which you are obviously doing wrong is object.getValue()...this doesnt makes sense you have to iterate through both lists and compare values to conclude if they are equal.

It wasnt obvious without the example sorry for above comments, It is not possible to have this result with your comparator. Your logic looks correct to me. But it would be good idea to incorporate w00t's comments also otherwise you will have a<'b as well as a>b and could cause a runtime error. Please check if the comparator is applied properly to you sorting function ( objects ).