You should implement Comparable <Person>. Assuming all fields will not be null (for simplicity sake), that age is an int, and compare ranking is first, last, age, the compareTo method is quite simple:

public int compareTo(Person other) {
    int i = firstName.compareTo(other.firstName);
    if (i != 0) return i;

    i = lastName.compareTo(other.lastName);
    if (i != 0) return i;

    return Integer.compare(age, other.age);
}

Lambda

The lambda can be seen as the shorthand of somewhat cumbersome anonymous class:

Java8 version:

Collections.sort(list, (o1, o2) -> o1.getTime() - o2.getTime());

Pre-Java8 version:

    Collections.sort(list, new Comparator<Message>() {
        @Override
        public int compare(Message o1, Message o2) {
            return o1.getTime() - o2.getTime();
        }
    }); 

So, every time you are confused how to write a right lambda, you may try to write a pre-lambda version, and see how it is wrong.

Application

In your specific problem, you can see the compare returns int, where your getTime returns long, which is the source of error.

You may use either method as other answer method, like:

Long.compare(o1.getTime(),o2.getTime())

Notice

• You should avoid using - in Comparator, which may causes overflow, in some cases, and crash your program.

There is no need to use the method Comparator::reverse. Since you want to reverse the comparison based on the integer, just negate the age -p.getAge() and it will be sorted in the descending order:

Comparator.comparing((Person p) -> p.getName())
          .thenComparingInt(p -> -p.getAge())
          .thenComparing(p -> p.getCity());

You can use the static method Comparator.comparing to create a comparator based on a function that returns a comparable value. Such a comparator can be chained with others.

Assuming your type is called Person, you would have:

Comparator<Person> c = Comparator
        .comparing(p -> p.getGroup())
        .thenComparing(p -> p.getAge())
        .thenComparing(p -> p.getName())

If any of the getters return a primitive type, you have to use - for example - comparingInt and thenComparingInt, respectively. You can also use method references:

Comparator<Person> c = Comparator
        .comparing(Person::getGroup)
        .thenComparing(Person::getAge)
        .thenComparing(Person::getName)

But ... if your class has a natural ordering according to these values, you better let it implement the interface Comparable and write the compare logic in there:

class Person implements Comparable<Person> {
    ...
    @Override
    public int compareTo(Person other) {
        int compare = Integer.compare(getGroup(), other.getGroup());
        if (compare == 0) {
            compare = Integer.compare(getAge(), other.getAge());
        }
        if (compare == 0) {
            compare = getName.compareTo(other.getName());
        }
        return compare;
    }
}

This code snippet can also be used in a lambda expression:

list.sort((o1, o2) -> {
    int compare = Integer.compare(o1.getGroup(), o2.getGroup());
    if (compare == 0) {
        compare = Integer.compare(o1.getAge(), o2.getAge());
    }
    if (compare == 0) {
        compare = o1.getName.compareTo(o2.getName());
    }
    return compare;
});

For those able to use the Java 8 streaming API, there is a neater approach that is well documented here: Lambdas and sorting

I was looking for the equivalent of the C# LINQ:

Copy.ThenBy(...)

I found the mechanism in Java 8 on the Comparator:

Copy.thenComparing(...)

So here is the snippet that demonstrates the algorithm.

Copy    Comparator<Person> comparator = Comparator.comparing(person -> person.name);
    comparator = comparator.thenComparing(Comparator.comparing(person -> person.age));

Check out the link above for a neater way and an explanation about how Java's type inference makes it a bit more clunky to define compared to LINQ.

Here is the full unit test for reference:

Copy@Test
public void testChainedSorting()
{
    // Create the collection of people:
    ArrayList<Person> people = new ArrayList<>();
    people.add(new Person("Dan", 4));
    people.add(new Person("Andi", 2));
    people.add(new Person("Bob", 42));
    people.add(new Person("Debby", 3));
    people.add(new Person("Bob", 72));
    people.add(new Person("Barry", 20));
    people.add(new Person("Cathy", 40));
    people.add(new Person("Bob", 40));
    people.add(new Person("Barry", 50));

    // Define chained comparators:
    // Great article explaining this and how to make it even neater:
    // http://blog.jooq.org/2014/01/31/java-8-friday-goodies-lambdas-and-sorting/
    Comparator<Person> comparator = Comparator.comparing(person -> person.name);
    comparator = comparator.thenComparing(Comparator.comparing(person -> person.age));

    // Sort the stream:
    Stream<Person> personStream = people.stream().sorted(comparator);

    // Make sure that the output is as expected:
    List<Person> sortedPeople = personStream.collect(Collectors.toList());
    Assert.assertEquals("Andi",  sortedPeople.get(0).name); Assert.assertEquals(2,  sortedPeople.get(0).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Barry", sortedPeople.get(1).name); Assert.assertEquals(20, sortedPeople.get(1).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Barry", sortedPeople.get(2).name); Assert.assertEquals(50, sortedPeople.get(2).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Bob",   sortedPeople.get(3).name); Assert.assertEquals(40, sortedPeople.get(3).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Bob",   sortedPeople.get(4).name); Assert.assertEquals(42, sortedPeople.get(4).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Bob",   sortedPeople.get(5).name); Assert.assertEquals(72, sortedPeople.get(5).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Cathy", sortedPeople.get(6).name); Assert.assertEquals(40, sortedPeople.get(6).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Dan",   sortedPeople.get(7).name); Assert.assertEquals(4,  sortedPeople.get(7).age);
    Assert.assertEquals("Debby", sortedPeople.get(8).name); Assert.assertEquals(3,  sortedPeople.get(8).age);
    // Andi     : 2
    // Barry    : 20
    // Barry    : 50
    // Bob      : 40
    // Bob      : 42
    // Bob      : 72
    // Cathy    : 40
    // Dan      : 4
    // Debby    : 3
}

/**
 * A person in our system.
 */
public static class Person
{
    /**
     * Creates a new person.
     * @param name The name of the person.
     * @param age The age of the person.
     */
    public Person(String name, int age)
    {
        this.age = age;
        this.name = name;
    }

    /**
     * The name of the person.
     */
    public String name;

    /**
     * The age of the person.
     */
    public int age;

    @Override
    public String toString()
    {
        if (name == null) return super.toString();
        else return String.format("%s : %d", this.name, this.age);
    }
}