How do I calculate the “median of five” in C#?

Question

The median of five is sometimes used as an exercise in algorithm design and is known to be computable using only 6 comparisons.

What is the best way

Answer 1

Interesting how many comparisons in MSDN sample...

public static double Median(this IEnumerable source) {
        if (source.Count() == 0)  throw new InvalidOperationException("Cannot compute median for an empty set.");

        var sortedList = from number in source
                         orderby number
                         select number;

        int itemIndex = (int)sortedList.Count() / 2;

        if (sortedList.Count() % 2 == 0) {
            // Even number of items.
            return (sortedList.ElementAt(itemIndex) + sortedList.ElementAt(itemIndex - 1)) / 2; } else {
            // Odd number of items.
            return sortedList.ElementAt(itemIndex); }
    }