Keep NULL rows last on Dynamic Linq Order By

Question

I am using this snippet below for Ordering my Linq queries dynamically and works great. I am not great at reflection or complex linq queries but I need a way that when ascendin

Answer 1

It's relatively simple. For each passed sort selector, the method executes one of the following:

.OrderBy(x => x.Member)
.ThenBy(x => x.Member)
.OrderByDescending(x => x.Member)
.ThenByDescendiong(x => x.Member)

When the x.Member type is reference type or nullable value type, the desired behavior can be achieved by pre ordering with the same direction by the following expression

x => x.Member == null ? 1 : 0

Some people use ordering by bool, but I prefer to be explicit and use conditional operator with specific integer values. So the corresponding calls for the above calls would be:

.OrderBy(x => x.Member == null ? 1 : 0).ThenBy(x => x.Member)
.ThenBy(x => x.Member == null ? 1 : 0).ThenBy(x => x.Member)
.OrderByDescending(x => x.Member == null ? 1 : 0).ThenByDescending(x => x.Member)
.ThenByDescending(x => x.Member == null ? 1 : 0).ThenByDescending(x => x.Member)

i.e. the original method on the pre order expression followed by the ThenBy(Descending) with the original expression.

Here is the implementation:

public static class OrderByHelper
{
    public static IOrderedQueryable ThenBy(this IEnumerable source, string orderBy)
    {
        return source.AsQueryable().ThenBy(orderBy);
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable ThenBy(this IQueryable source, string orderBy)
    {
        return OrderBy(source, orderBy, false);
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable OrderBy(this IEnumerable source, string orderBy)
    {
        return source.AsQueryable().OrderBy(orderBy);
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable OrderBy(this IQueryable source, string orderBy)
    {
        return OrderBy(source, orderBy, true);
    }

    private static IOrderedQueryable OrderBy(IQueryable source, string orderBy, bool initial)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(orderBy))
            orderBy = "ID DESC";
        var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "x");
        var expression = source.Expression;
        foreach (var item in ParseOrderBy(orderBy, initial))
        {
            var order = item.PropertyName.Split('.')
                .Aggregate((Expression)parameter, Expression.PropertyOrField);
            if (!order.Type.IsValueType || Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(order.Type) != null)
            {
                var preOrder = Expression.Condition(
                        Expression.Equal(order, Expression.Constant(null, order.Type)),
                        Expression.Constant(1), Expression.Constant(0));
                expression = CallOrderBy(expression, Expression.Lambda(preOrder, parameter), item.Direction, initial);
                initial = false;
            }
            expression = CallOrderBy(expression, Expression.Lambda(order, parameter), item.Direction, initial);
            initial = false;
        }
        return (IOrderedQueryable)source.Provider.CreateQuery(expression);
    }

    private static Expression CallOrderBy(Expression source, LambdaExpression selector, SortDirection direction, bool initial)
    {
        return Expression.Call(
            typeof(Queryable), GetMethodName(direction, initial),
            new Type[] { selector.Parameters[0].Type, selector.Body.Type },
            source, Expression.Quote(selector));
    }

    private static string GetMethodName(SortDirection direction, bool initial)
    {
        return direction == SortDirection.Ascending ?
            (initial ? "OrderBy" : "ThenBy") :
            (initial ? "OrderByDescending" : "ThenByDescending");
    }

    private static IEnumerable ParseOrderBy(string orderBy, bool initial)
    {
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(orderBy))
            yield break;

        string[] items = orderBy.Split(',');

        foreach (string item in items)
        {
            string[] pair = item.Trim().Split(' ');

            if (pair.Length > 2)
                throw new ArgumentException(String.Format("Invalid OrderBy string '{0}'. Order By Format: Property, Property2 ASC, Property2 DESC", item));

            string prop = pair[0].Trim();

            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(prop))
                throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Property. Order By Format: Property, Property2 ASC, Property2 DESC");

            SortDirection dir = SortDirection.Ascending;

            if (pair.Length == 2)
                dir = ("desc".Equals(pair[1].Trim(), StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) ? SortDirection.Descending : SortDirection.Ascending);

            yield return new OrderByInfo() { PropertyName = prop, Direction = dir, Initial = initial };

            initial = false;
        }

    }

    private class OrderByInfo
    {
        public string PropertyName { get; set; }
        public SortDirection Direction { get; set; }
        public bool Initial { get; set; }
    }

    private enum SortDirection
    {
        Ascending = 0,
        Descending = 1
    }
}