How to Sort a List by a property in the object

Question

I have a class called Order which has properties such as OrderId, OrderDate, Quantity, and Total. I have a l

Answer 1

You can do something more generic about the properties selection yet be specific about the type you're selecting from, in your case 'Order':

write your function as a generic one:

public List GetOrderList(IEnumerable orders, Func propertySelector)
        {
            return (from order in orders
                    orderby propertySelector(order)
                    select order).ToList();
        } 

and then use it like this:

var ordersOrderedByDate = GetOrderList(orders, x => x.OrderDate);

You can be even more generic and define an open type for what you want to order:

public List OrderBy(IEnumerable collection, Func propertySelector)
        {
            return (from item in collection
                    orderby propertySelector(item)
                    select item).ToList();
        } 

and use it the same way:

var ordersOrderedByDate = OrderBy(orders, x => x.OrderDate);

Which is a stupid unnecessary complex way of doing a LINQ style 'OrderBy', But it may give you a clue of how it can be implemented in a generic way