Sort list based on group count

Question

I\'d like to sort a List on element counts of IGroupings.

And that\'s it, the list should ideally be the same. I would compromise

Answer 1

Almost no operation in .NET clones an object. Neither deeply nor shallowly. LINQ also does not clone the elements it processes. Therefore, a simple LINQ query will work:

var oldList = ...;
var newList = (from x in oldList
               group x by something into g
               orderby g.Count()
               from x in g //flatten the groups
               select x).ToList();

This code copies references to the original objects. If you believe otherwise, you are probably misinterpreting what you are seeing.