• Each object has fields like year, version, and a link (nextVersionId) to the next version of itself.

• You want to sort by one field (say, year or link\ID), but when sorting, you must treat each version chain as a single unit and sort them together and in order.

1.      Group by string/chain

o    Use the nextVersionId links to build “string” (linked lists).

o    For example:

2. {id:31, nextVersionId=null, year:1900}]

3. {id:33, nextVersionId=null, year:1919},

4. {id:1, nextVersionId=4, year:1984},

5. {id:2, nextVersionId=1, year:1997},

6.

7. [{id:4, nextVersionId=null, year:1999},

8. {id:3, nextVersionId=31, year:2000},

9.  Collapse chain into one representative

o    For sorting purposes, you need a rule:

Do you sort by first version’s field?

Or latest version’s field?

Example: If sorting by year, pick the year of the latest version as the representative.

10. Sort the chains

o    Apply your chosen sorting criterion to the representative of each chain.

o    Example: sort by name alphabetically → Chain 1 (year 1900), then Chain 2 (year 1919).

11. Expand chains back out

o    Once chains are sorted, expand them in their natural order (version 1 → version 2 → …).