Java – is sorting by a non transitive comparator “working”?

If I report to collections What happens if sort provides a non transitive comparator? Can I enter an infinite cycle?

A little test I wrote produced an output, but I want to make sure that this will always be the case

The problem is that in some cases, my comparator can generate cycles. In this case, I just want to ensure that it does not enter an infinite loop I don't care about the actual results

Solution

Java docs says you have to make sure the comparator is transitive If you provide a comparator that does not meet the requirements, all bets will be turned off It may work for a given implementation, but it may crash in another instance (STD:: sort in C)

In short, you should not rely on it to work, even if it is for some or other examples