C# List sort issue

Question

I have a List looks like:

List<string> newList = new List<string>() { "10S", "XS", "80", "5S", "160", "40S", "80S", "STD", "40", "XXS" };

And I want to sort it to

{ "40", "80", "160", "5S", "10S", "40S", "80S", "STD", "XS", "XXS" };

How should I do it? Hope anyone can help me on this issue, thanks a lot!

Duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/188141/c-sharp-list-orderby-alphabetical-order — Benjamin Gruenbaum, May 21 '13 at 02:41
You will have to overwrite sorting function (write your own). I dont think default sort will sort the way you want. — Guanxi, May 21 '13 at 02:42
You need to define a comparison function that returns a value indicating the order you want them in. None of the pre-defined comparisons will work for this. — Corey, May 21 '13 at 02:42
Is there a specific **sorting rule** that I'm not able to see? So you want a asc number sort, then asc letter + number and then a asc letter sort? — Chief Wiggum, May 21 '13 at 02:43
take a look here => http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6396378/c-sharp-linq-orderby-numbers-that-are-string-and-you-cannot-convert-them-to-int as the guys mentioned you'll need to create your own comparison func that link should give you the idea. — origin1tech, May 21 '13 at 02:46

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 21 '13 at 02:59

List<string> list = new List<string>() { "10S", "XS", "80", "5S", "160", "40S", "80S", "STD", "40", "XXS" };

// filter out numbers:
int temp;
var newList = (from item in list where int.TryParse(item, out temp) select item).ToList();

// sort by number and get back string:
newList = newList.Select(x => int.Parse(x)).OrderBy(x => x).Select(x => x.ToString()).ToList();

// sort the rest by string:
var second = list.Except(newList).OrderBy(x => x).ToList();

// Merge the two back together
newList.AddRange(second);

newList will now be : { "40", "80", "160", "5S", "10S", "40S", "80S", "STD", "XS", "XXS" };

Nice solution there. And you could even sort right away after filtering out the numbers like: var newList = (from item in list where int.TryParse(item, out temp) select item).OrderBy(x=>int.Parse(x)).ToList(); But probably you are looking at pedagogical value here more than terseness. — Edper, May 21 '13 at 04:09

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 21 '13 at 02:54

I write some code and it works. I just use the Linq to do what you want

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace SortTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //your objects
            List<string> newList = new List<string>() { "10S", "XS", "80", "5S", "160", "40S", "80S", "STD", "40", "XXS" };

            //filter the stuff you want first, and then sort them from small to big
            var sQuery = newList.Where(p => p.EndsWith("s", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)).OrderBy(p => p);
            var numQuery = newList.Where(p => Regex.IsMatch(p, "^[0-9]+$", RegexOptions.Singleline)).OrderBy(p => p);
            var otherQuery = newList.AsQueryable().Where(p => !sQuery.Contains(p) && !numQuery.Contains(p));

            //get the result, add the sorts
            List<string> resultList = new List<string>();
            resultList.AddRange(numQuery);
            resultList.AddRange(sQuery);
            resultList.AddRange(otherQuery);

            //print them out
            Console.Write(string.Join(",", resultList.ToArray()));

            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

C# List sort issue

2 Answers2