Inserting an Element into a Sorted List

This example demonstrates how to determine the index at which an element should be inserted into a sorted list. Although binarySearch() is used to locate existent elements, it can also be used to determine the insert index for non-existent elements. Specifically, the insertion index is computed in the following way: insert-index = (-return-value)-1
// Create a list with an ordered list of items List sortedList = new LinkedList(); sortedList.addAll(Arrays.asList(new String[]{"ant", "bat", "cat", "dog"})); // Search for the non-existent item int index = Collections.binarySearch(sortedList, "cow"); // -4 // Add the non-existent item to the list if (index < 0) { sortedList.add(-index-1, "cow"); }

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