How to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#

  2. HowTo
  3. C# Howtos
  4. How to Sort a List by a Property in the …
Minahil Noor Feb 16, 2024
Csharp Csharp Method Csharp Parameter
  1. Use the OrderBy Method to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#
  2. Use a Delegate to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#
How to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#

This article will introduce different methods to sort a list by a property in the object using C# code.

  • Using the OrderBy method
  • Using delegate

Use the OrderBy Method to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#

We will use the built-in function OrderBy to sort a list by a property in the object. It is LINQ’s method. This method creates a new list sorted by the given property. The correct syntax to use this method for sorting a list by a property is as follows.

ListName.Orderby(varName => varName.property);

The built-in function OrderBy has two parameters. The details of its parameters are as follows.

Parameters Description
varName mandatory It is the variable name for the given list.
property mandatory It is the property that we will use to sort our list.

The program below shows how we can use this function to sort a list by a property in the object.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Flowers {
  public string name;
  public int priority;

  public Flowers(string name, int priority) {
    this.name = name;
    this.priority = priority;
  }

  public override string ToString() {
    return "[" + name + "," + priority + "]";
  }
}

public class Example {
  public static void Main() {
    Flowers hibiscus = new Flowers("Hibiscus", 3);
    Flowers rose = new Flowers("Rose", 1);
    Flowers lili = new Flowers("Lili", 4);

    List<Flowers> mylist = new List<Flowers>() { hibiscus, rose, lili };

    List<Flowers> sorted = mylist.OrderBy(x => x.priority).ToList();
    Console.WriteLine(String.Join(Environment.NewLine, sorted));
  }
}

Output:

[Rose,1]
[Hibiscus,3]
[Lili,4]

Use a Delegate to Sort a List by a Property in the Object in C#

We can also use the custom delegate to sort a list by a property in the object. The correct syntax to use a delegate is as follows.

[access modifier]
delegate[return type][delegate name]([parameters])

The program below shows how we can use a delegate to sort a list by a property in the object.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Flowers {
  public string name;
  public int priority;

  public Flowers(string name, int priority) {
    this.name = name;
    this.priority = priority;
  }

  public override string ToString() {
    return "[" + name + "," + priority + "]";
  }
}

public class Example {
  public static void Main() {
    Flowers hibiscus = new Flowers("Hibiscus", 3);
    Flowers rose = new Flowers("Rose", 1);
    Flowers lili = new Flowers("Lili", 4);

    List<Flowers> mylist = new List<Flowers>() { hibiscus, rose, lili };

    mylist.Sort(delegate(Flowers x, Flowers y) { return x.priority.CompareTo(y.priority); });

    Console.WriteLine(String.Join(Environment.NewLine, mylist));
  }
}

Output:

[Rose,1]
[Hibiscus,3]
[Lili,4]

Related Article - Csharp Method

Related Article - Csharp Parameter