Sorting a List of objects in C#

Question

public class CarSpecs
{
  public String CarName { get; set; }

  public String CarMaker { get; set; }

  public DateTime CreationDate { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

I would avoid writing my own sorting algorithm, but if you are going to anyway, have a look at http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/ for some comparrisons of different sorting algorithms...

Answer 2

If you're after an efficient way of sorting, I'd advise against using bubble sort and go for a quick sort instead. This page provides a rather good explanation of the algorithm:

http://www.devhood.com/Tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutorial_id=574

Best of luck!

Answer 3

You could use LINQ:

listOfCars.OrderBy(x => x.CreationDate);

EDIT: With this approach, its easy to add on more sort columns:

listOfCars.OrderBy(x => x.CreationDate).ThenBy(x => x.Make).ThenBy(x => x.Whatever);

Answer 4

The best approach is to implement either IComparable or IComparable<T>, and then call List<T>.Sort(). This will do all the hard work of sorting for you.

Answer 5

The List<T> class makes this trivial for you, since it contains a Sort method. (It uses the QuickSort algorithm, not Bubble Sort, which is typically better anyway.) Even better, it has an overload that takes a Comparison<T> argument, which means you can pass a lambda expression and make things very simple indeed.

Try this:

CarList.Sort((x, y) => DateTime.Compare(x.CreationDate, y.CreationDate));