java - "Comparison method violates its general contract!" - TimSort and GridLayout

Question

I made a color palette with a jPanel and a JLabel array in it. At first it worked well, but then i put some other jLabels out of the JPanel and added them some events. Now I keep getting this error:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
at java.util.TimSort.mergeLo(TimSort.java:747)
at java.util.TimSort.mergeAt(TimSort.java:483)
at java.util.TimSort.mergeCollapse(TimSort.java:410)
at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:214)
at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:173)
at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:659)
at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:217)
at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.enumerateAndSortCycle(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:136)
at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.getFocusTraversalCycle(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:110)
at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.getFirstComponent(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:435)
at javax.swing.LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy.getFirstComponent(LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy.java:166)
at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.getDefaultComponent(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:515)
at java.awt.FocusTraversalPolicy.getInitialComponent(FocusTraversalPolicy.java:169)
at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchEvent(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:380)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4731)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2287)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2719)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4687)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:723)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$200(EventQueue.java:103)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:682)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:680)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:87)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:696)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:694)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:693)
at java.awt.SequencedEvent.dispatch(SequencedEvent.java:116)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:721)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$200(EventQueue.java:103)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:682)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:680)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:87)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:696)
at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:694)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:693)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:244)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:163)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:151)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:147)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:139)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:97)

I tried to remove everything i've done after first time i got this error, but still keep getting it. When i change the layout from GridLayout to anything else, then the error disappears, but the code becomes useless. So i need GridLayout. When i move everything in that JPanel to another JPanel, the error also goes away. But when i remove the first JPanel, error comes back.

By the way, the program works, but it's not pleasent to keep getting errors...

Edit: When i use less than 225 color, there's no error. I'm really curious about what's happening. Any explanation would be appreciated...

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13575224/comparison-method-violates-its-general-contract-timsort-and-gridlayout

Answer 1

It seems to me like you've hit a bug in the JDK since the error seems to come from Swing classes.

Options:

1. Define the property java.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort as true. Either using in your code the line

   System.setProperty("java.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort", "true");
   

   before any Swing code. As the first line in the main method should work.

   Or adding

   -Djava.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort=true
   

   to your starting options (in the console, or in the project properties in an IDE, Ant script, etc.)

2. Upgrade your JDK and see if the problem goes away

3. Downgrade to Java 6