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

To do this without LINQ on .Net2.0:

List<Order> objListOrder = GetOrderList();
objListOrder.Sort(
    delegate(Order p1, Order p2)
    {
        return p1.OrderDate.CompareTo(p2.OrderDate);
    }
);

If you're on .Net3.0, then LukeH's answer is what you're after.

To sort on multiple properties, you can still do it within a delegate. For example:

orderList.Sort(
    delegate(Order p1, Order p2)
    {
        int compareDate = p1.Date.CompareTo(p2.Date);
        if (compareDate == 0)
        {
            return p2.OrderID.CompareTo(p1.OrderID);
        }
        return compareDate;
    }
);

This would give you ascending dates with descending orderIds.

However, I wouldn't recommend sticking delegates as it will mean lots of places without code re-use. You should implement an IComparer and just pass that through to your Sort method. See here.

public class MyOrderingClass : IComparer<Order>
{
    public int Compare(Order x, Order y)
    {
        int compareDate = x.Date.CompareTo(y.Date);
        if (compareDate == 0)
        {
            return x.OrderID.CompareTo(y.OrderID);
        }
        return compareDate;
    }
}

And then to use this IComparer class, just instantiate it and pass it to your Sort method:

IComparer<Order> comparer = new MyOrderingClass();
orderList.Sort(comparer);

Answer 2

Here is a generic LINQ extension method that does not create an extra copy of the list:

public static void Sort<T,U>(this List<T> list, Func<T, U> expression)
    where U : IComparable<U>
{
    list.Sort((x, y) => expression.Invoke(x).CompareTo(expression.Invoke(y)));
}

To use it:

myList.Sort(x=> x.myProperty);

I recently built this additional one which accepts an ICompare<U>, so that you can customize the comparison. This came in handy when I needed to do a Natural string sort:

public static void Sort<T, U>(this List<T> list, Func<T, U> expression, IComparer<U> comparer)
    where U : IComparable<U>
{    
    list.Sort((x, y) => comparer.Compare(expression.Invoke(x), expression.Invoke(y)));
}

Answer 3

Anybody working with nullable types, Value is required to use CompareTo.

objListOrder.Sort((x, y) => x.YourNullableType.Value.CompareTo(y.YourNullableType.Value));

Answer 4

Doing it without Linq as you said:

public class Order : IComparable
{
    public DateTime OrderDate { get; set; }
    public int OrderId { get; set; }

    public int CompareTo(object obj)
    {
        Order orderToCompare = obj as Order;
        if (orderToCompare.OrderDate < OrderDate || orderToCompare.OrderId < OrderId)
        {
            return 1;
        }
        if (orderToCompare.OrderDate > OrderDate || orderToCompare.OrderId > OrderId)
        {
            return -1;
        }

        // The orders are equivalent.
        return 0;
    }
}

Then just call .sort() on your list of Orders

Answer 5

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<Order> GetOrderList<T>(IEnumerable<Order> orders, Func<Order, T> 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<T> OrderBy<T,P>(IEnumerable<T> collection, Func<T,P> 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

Answer 6

Suppose you have the following code, in this code, we have a Passenger class with a couple of properties that we want to sort based on.

public class Passenger
{
    public string Name { get; }
    public string LastName { get; }
    public string PassportNo { get; }
    public string Nationality { get; }

    public Passenger(string name, string lastName, string passportNo, string nationality)
    {
        this.Name = name;
        this.LastName = lastName;
        this.PassportNo = passportNo;
        this.Nationality = nationality;
    }

    public static int CompareByName(Passenger passenger1, Passenger passenger2)
    {
        return String.Compare(passenger1.Name, passenger2.Name);
    }

    public static int CompareByLastName(Passenger passenger1, Passenger passenger2)
    {
        return String.Compare(passenger1.LastName, passenger2.LastName);
    }

    public static int CompareNationality(Passenger passenger1, Passenger passenger2)
    {
        return String.Compare(passenger1.Nationality, passenger2.Nationality);
    }
}

public class TestPassengerSort
{
    Passenger p1 = new Passenger("Johon", "Floid", "A123456789", "USA");
    Passenger p2 = new Passenger("Jo", "Sina", "A987463215", "UAE");
    Passenger p3 = new Passenger("Ped", "Zoola", "A987855215", "Italy");

    public void SortThem()
    {
        Passenger[] passengers = new Passenger[] { p1, p2, p3 };
        List<Passenger> passengerList = new List<Passenger> { p1, p2, p3 };

        Array.Sort(passengers, Passenger.CompareByName);
        Array.Sort(passengers, Passenger.CompareByLastName);
        Array.Sort(passengers, Passenger.CompareNationality);

        passengerList.Sort(Passenger.CompareByName);
        passengerList.Sort(Passenger.CompareByLastName);
        passengerList.Sort(Passenger.CompareNationality);

    }
}

So you can implement your sort structure by using Composition delegate.