Soccer table ranking calculator

This is a tool for calculating sports (e.g. soccer) table rankings according to different ranking schemes which can be configured easily by chaining criteria similar to Java I/O streams. In addition to predecessor/successor relations, criteria can also have parent-child relations. The two relation types work as follows:

• A ranking strategy calls its successor (if any) upon equality, i.e. if the strategy's ranking result is identical for two or more competitors. For example, two competitors have equal points, so the next ranking criterion (e.g. goals difference) in the successor chain is called.

• A ranking strategy calls its child (if any) upon equality after having created a sub-table with the results of all equally ranked competitors only. For example, two competitors have equal goals difference, so the next ranking criterion (e.g. points in direct comparison) in the child chain is called.

• A ranking strategy might have either a child or a successor or both or neither. If the strategy has a child as well as a successor, the child is called first and the successor only if the child strategy returns equality.

• Ranking strategies can be nested (children) or chained (successors) to any depth/length the ranking algorithm requires. Furthermore the same ranking criterion can occur multiple times at different nesting levels. For example, points can occur on top level and as a child criterion for direct comparison in a sub-table.

Currently configuration is done directly in the code, but it would be simple to read in configurations from the command line or config files. Feel free to play with the application. Current configuration and extension points are:

• Class Config: There you can edit static constants in order to influence the level of detail for printing tables as well as the set of test data to be processed. It is also the place to enter more test data or modify the existing ones.

• Class Ranking: There you can create new ranking strategies or modify existing ones. See comments for commit f3959256 for a brief syntax description.

• Class TableRowComparator: If you need new ranking criteria which do not exist as concrete subclasses of this class yet, just create your own subclass. Just copy & paste one of the other subclasses, e.g. PointsComparator or GoalsDifferenceComparator, and change method getComparisonValue. In many cases it is as simple as changing the return value, i.e. a one-line edit. Most relevant criteria used in (inter)national leagues and tournaments should already exist, though. So most of the time you will just use one of the existing instances of Ranking or maybe configure a new one from existing criteria.