Groovy: How do I sort an ArrayList of String:s in length-of-string order?

Question

How do I sort an ArrayList of String's in length-of-string order in Groovy?

Code:

def words = ['groovy', 'is', 'cool']
// your code goes here:
// code that sorts words in ascending length-of-word order
assert words == ['is', 'cool', 'groovy']

There are certainly more than one way to do it - so I'll grant the answer to the person who provides the most elegant solution.

Solution

words = words.sort { it.size() }

To get descending order

words = words.sort { -it.size() }

Comments

[Sliq]

it's a shame that this is - even in 2013 - not part of the official groovy docs (at least i have never found this).

[Michael Borgwardt]

@Panique: what exactly would you expect to find? The sort method is in the API docs, the rest is just understanding how closures work.

[Sliq]

@MichaelBorgwardt I just searched for hours, days, weeks, years and maybe centuries for that little minus in -it.size(). Never seen that before. A good documentation should give such information, as this is basic stuff.

[RST]

Thanks ! ascending works, however, the descending order with - does not

[Chris]

How are those things different?