right now you only have one index, the array index, so if you sort, it's scrambled - sounds like you need a dedicated value for subject index that "stays with" the score, did I read you question right?

 

one approach would be to create a class containing both the subject index and its score.  have the class implement the Comparable interface (google it) and implement compareTo based on score alone.  you'd have an array with 12 instances of this class.  then Arrays.sort() on it, and done - as you sort the array, each instance will still contain its original subject index along with its score, no matter where it happens to end up after sorting.  the array index of the sorted array is now its ranking.  so just read out yourArray[11].subjectIndex as the best subject, and yourArray[0].subjectIndex as the worst subject.  (and similarly for indexes 10 and 1, the second best/worst)  (or reverse those indexes if you choose to sort descending)

2. // using the Comparable Interface
3. // http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/lang/Comparable.html
4. // taken from post "object oriented question"
5. // http://processing.org/discourse/yabb_beta/YaBB.cgi?board=Syntax;action=display;num=1217951992;start=3#3
6. // comparable example by JohnG
7. 
   
8. void setup() {
9.   size(200,200);
10.   background(255);
11.   //create an array of MyObjs
12.   score[] p1 = new score[12];
13.   for(int i=0;i<p1.length;i++) {
14.     p1[i] = new score(i);
15.   }
16. 
    
17. 
    
18. }
19. 
    
20. class score implements Comparable {
21.   int x,y;
22.   int id;
23.   score(int subject) {
24.     id = subject;
25.     x = int(random(100));
26.   }
27.   //if we want to sort based on the X value of MyObj-es:
28.   int compareTo(Object p1)
29.   {
30.     score other=(score)p1;
31.     if(other.x>x)  
32.       return -1;
33.     if(other.x==x)
34.       return 0;
35.     else
36.       return 1;
37.   }
38. }
39. 
    
40. 
    
41. void draw() {
42.   fill(255);
43. }
44. 
    
45. void mousePressed() {
46.     Arrays.sort(p1);
47. 
    
48.   for(int i=0;i<p1.length;i++) {
49.     println("id : "+p1[i].id+" "+p1[i].x);
50.   }
51. }

you'll need to declare "score [] p1;" globally, that is, outside of any function, typically at the top of your code.  then it'll be visible from other scopes.  inside setup, you'd simply assign (not declare) as "p1 = new score[12];"

 

(or you could declare AND assign globally, since you know it has a fixed size prior to runtime - in that case just move the entire existing line as is out of setup and into top-level scope)

 

btw, a simple way to write your compareTo would be:  return (int)Math.signum(x-other.x);