How can I use C# to sort values numerically?

Question

I have a string that contains numbers separated by periods. When I sort it appears like this since it is a string: (ascii char order)

3.9.5.2.1.1
3.9.5.2.1.10
3.         


        

Answer 1

In addition to implementing your own IComparer as Jon mentions, if you call ToList() on your array, you can call the .Sort() method and pass in a function parameter that compares two values, as shown here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w56d4y5z.aspx

Answer 2

Not really, though you may be able to use Regexes or Linq to avoid too much wheel-reinventing. Keep in mind it will cost you much the same computationally to use something built-in as to roll your own.

Try this:

List<string> myList = GetNumberStrings();

myList.Select(s=>s.Split('.')).ToArray().
   .Sort((a,b)=>RecursiveCompare(a,b))
   .Select(a=>a.Aggregate(new StringBuilder(),
      (s,sb)=>sb.Append(s).Append(".")).Remove(sb.Length-1, 1).ToString())
   .ToList();

...

public int RecursiveCompare(string[] a, string[] b)
{
    return RecursiveCompare(a,b,0)
}

public int RecursiveCompare(string[] a, string[] b, int index)
{
    return index == a.Length || index == b.Length 
        ? 0 
        : a[index] < b[index] 
            ? -1 
            : a[index] > b[index] 
                ? 1 
                : RecursiveCompare(a,b, index++);
}

Not the most compact, but it should work and you could use a y-combinator to make the comparison a lambda.

Answer 3

You can use the awesome AlphanumComparator Alphanum natural sort algorithm by David Koelle.

Code:

OrderBy(o => o.MyString, new AlphanumComparator())

If you're gonna use the C# version change it to:

AlphanumComparator : IComparer<string>

and

public int Compare(string x, string y)

Answer 4

Since the comparison you want to do on the strings is different from how strings are normally compared in .Net, you will have to use a custom string string comparer

 class MyStringComparer : IComparer<string>
        {
            public int Compare(string x, string y)
            {
                // your comparison logic
                // split the string using '.' separator
                // parse each string item in split array into an int
                // compare parsed integers from left to right
            }
        }

Then you can use the comparer in methods like OrderBy and Sort

var sorted = lst.OrderBy(s => s, new MyStringComparer());

lst.Sort(new MyStringComparer());

This will give you the desired result. If not then just tweak the comparer.

Answer 5

Here's my working solution that also takes care of strings that are not in the right format (e.g. contain text).

The idea is to get the first number within both strings and compare these numbers. If they match, continue with the next number. If they don't, we have a winner. If one if these numbers isn't a number at all, do a string comparison of the part, which wasn't already compared.

It would be easy to make the comparer fully compatible to natural sort order by changing the way to determine the next number.

Look at that.. just found this question.

The Comparer:

class StringNumberComparer : IComparer<string>
{
    public int Compare(string x, string y)
    {
        int compareResult;
        int xIndex = 0, yIndex = 0;
        int xIndexLast = 0, yIndexLast = 0;
        int xNumber, yNumber;
        int xLength = x.Length;
        int yLength = y.Length;

        do
        {
            bool xHasNextNumber = TryGetNextNumber(x, ref xIndex, out xNumber);
            bool yHasNextNumber = TryGetNextNumber(y, ref yIndex, out yNumber);

            if (!(xHasNextNumber && yHasNextNumber))
            {
                // At least one the strings has either no more number or contains non-numeric chars
                // In this case do a string comparison of that last part
                return x.Substring(xIndexLast).CompareTo(y.Substring(yIndexLast));
            }

            xIndexLast = xIndex;
            yIndexLast = yIndex;

            compareResult = xNumber.CompareTo(yNumber);
        }
        while (compareResult == 0
            && xIndex < xLength
            && yIndex < yLength);

        return compareResult;
    }

    private bool TryGetNextNumber(string text, ref int startIndex, out int number)
    {
        number = 0;

        int pos = text.IndexOf('.', startIndex);
        if (pos < 0) pos = text.Length;

        if (!int.TryParse(text.Substring(startIndex, pos - startIndex), out number))
            return false;

        startIndex = pos + 1;

        return true;
    }
}

Usage:

public static void Main()
{
    var comparer = new StringNumberComparer();

    List<string> testStrings = new List<string>{
        "3.9.5.2.1.1",
        "3.9.5.2.1.10",
        "3.9.5.2.1.11",
        "3.9.test2",
        "3.9.test",
        "3.9.5.2.1.12",
        "3.9.5.2.1.2",
        "blabla",
        "....",
        "3.9.5.2.1.3",
        "3.9.5.2.1.4"};

    testStrings.Sort(comparer);

    DumpArray(testStrings);

    Console.Read();
}

private static void DumpArray(List<string> values)
{
    foreach (string value in values)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(value);
    }
}

Output:

....
3.9.5.2.1.1
3.9.5.2.1.2
3.9.5.2.1.3
3.9.5.2.1.4
3.9.5.2.1.10
3.9.5.2.1.11
3.9.5.2.1.12
3.9.test
3.9.test2
blabla

Answer 6

Split each string by '.', iterate through the components and compare them numerically.

This code also assumes that the number of components is signficant (a string '1.1.1' will be greater than '2.1'. This can be adjusted by altering the first if statement in the Compare method below.

    int Compare(string a, string b)
    {
        string[] aParts = a.Split('.');
        string[] bParts = b.Split('.');

        /// if A has more components than B, it must be larger.
        if (aParts.Length != bParts.Length)
            return (aParts.Length > bParts.Length) ? 1 : -1;

        int result = 0;
        /// iterate through each numerical component

        for (int i = 0; i < aParts.Length; i++)
            if ( (result = int.Parse(aParts[i]).CompareTo(int.Parse(bParts[i]))) !=0 )
                return result;

        /// all components are equal.
        return 0;
    }



    public string[] sort()
    {
        /// initialize test data
        string l = "3.9.5.2.1.1\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.10\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.11\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.12\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.2\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.3\n"
        + "3.9.5.2.1.4\n";

        /// split the large string into lines
        string[] arr = l.Split(new char[] { '\n' },StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
        /// create a list from the array
        List<string> strings = new List<string>(arr);
        /// sort using our custom sort routine
        strings.Sort(Compare);
        /// concatenate the list back to an array.
        return strings.ToArray();
    }