Subj : File Exporer like Sorting
To   : comp.programming,alt.comp.programming
From : Newb
Date : Sat Sep 24 2005 08:05 pm

What is the best type of algorithm/strategy
to tackle a problem like this?

I have data which is similiar to a files inside a
directory

1) Name 2) Size 3) Time 4) Someother Property

Some of these are strings & some ints.

The list of data is maintained in the order in which
I recieve it. I want to always remember this order
(i.e. get back this order if needed)

But at different times, I want this data sorted by
name or size or any of the other properties.

What's the best way to accomplish this?
What strategy is best suited for different sample
sizes - i.e. if I expect to have 10 such elements
on the average or 100 such elements or 1000?

I am going to be programming this in Java.
I am not interested in actual code - I am
just interested in what are the various
ways to achieve this.

.