how to merge java objects with effective dates

[java4ulok]

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

[Junky]

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.

[java4ulok]

Dates are java.util.Date

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

[KevinWorkman]

Sounds like you just need a loop that finds the min and max Dates, in the Object that holds the List of Customers.

Or you could just create a List of Dates from the Customer List, sort the List, then look at the first and last items in the List.

[Norm]

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