CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
Rod
Rod

Reputation: 15455

Sort Date or String type in one c# method

Environment: Visual Studio 2008 SP1, FX3.5 The method below shows how I can sort a list by date. Is there a way to make that more generic? For example, can I make it accept a string list or a date list and then sort. I was thinking maybe use DateTime.TryParse and if it's a date then list is a date then sort by DateTime, otherwise it's a list of string and sort by that instead.

public class Helpers
{
    public static List<DateTime> SortAscending(List<DateTime> list)
    {
    list.Sort((a, b) => a.CompareTo(b));
    return list;
    }

    public static List<DateTime> SortDescending(List<DateTime> list)
    {
    list.Sort((a, b) => b.CompareTo(a));
    return list;
    }
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 96

Answers (1)

Justin Niessner
Justin Niessner

Reputation: 245429

Your method could easily be changed to:

public static List<T> SortAscending(List<T> list) where T : IComparable
{
    list.Sort((a, b) => a.CompareTo(b));
    return list;
}

public static List<T> SortDescending(List<T> list) where T : IComparable
{
    list.Sort((a, b) => b.CompareTo(a));
    return list;
}

Which will allow you to sort a List of any type that implements IComparable.

Upvotes: 5

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