Already happened to you that you had a collection of object from type 'X' with some properties, and you had to sort it one time by property 'ID', and another time by property 'Name' ? You wished that you can sort it by just using a 'Sort Expression' ? If still not, I'm sure this moment will arrive sooner or later. Let me save you some time and an headache.
This is how it can be done:
public static IEnumerable<T> Sort<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, string sortExpression)
{
string[] sortParts = sortExpression.Split(' ');
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), string.Empty);
try
{
var property = Expression.Property(param, sortParts[0]);
var sortLambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, object>>(Expression.Convert(property, typeof(object)), param);
if (sortParts.Length > 1 && sortParts[1].Equals("desc", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
return source.AsQueryable<T>().OrderByDescending<T, object>(sortLambda);
}
return source.AsQueryable<T>().OrderBy<T, object>(sortLambda);
}
catch (ArgumentException)
{
return source;
}
}
Just drop it in a static class, and you will be able to sort any collection that implement the interface IEnumerable.
Lets say you have a class 'User':
public class User
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
and a List<User> collection: users. You can sort it however you want:
IEnumerable<User> sortedUsersIEnumerable = users.Sort<User>("ID desc");
Or
List<User> sortedUsersList = users.Sort<User>("Name").ToList();
I really think this extension should be 'built-in' part of the 'Linq'.
Extensions.cs (1.08 kb)