Linq - Order by number then letters

Question

I have a list of strings, and these strings contain numbers and words.

What I wanted to do is order it by the numbers (numeric order) followed by the words (alphabet

Answer 1

Given that you're doing it all in-process (as you've got a ToList call) I think I'd just use a custom comparer:

return ActiveRecordLinq.AsQueryable()
                       .Select(x => x.Voltage)
                       .Distinct()
                       .AsEnumerable() // Do the rest in-process
                       .Where(x => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(x))
                       .OrderBy(x => x, new AlphaNumericComparer())
                       .ToList();

Where AlphaNumericComparer implements IComparer, something like this:

public int Compare(string first, string second)
{
    // For simplicity, let's assume neither is null :)

    int firstNumber, secondNumber;
    bool firstIsNumber = int.TryParse(first, out firstNumber);
    bool secondIsNumber = int.TryParse(second, out secondNumber);

    if (firstIsNumber)
    {
        // If they're both numbers, compare them; otherwise first comes first
        return secondIsNumber ? firstNumber.CompareTo(secondNumber) : -1;
    }
    // If second is a number, that should come first; otherwise compare
    // as strings
    return secondIsNumber ? 1 : first.CompareTo(second);
}

You could use a giant conditional for the latter part:

public int Compare(string first, string second)
{
    // For simplicity, let's assume neither is null :)

    int firstNumber, secondNumber;
    bool firstIsNumber = int.TryParse(first, out firstNumber);
    bool secondIsNumber = int.TryParse(second, out secondNumber);

    return firstIsNumber 
        ? secondIsNumber ? firstNumber.CompareTo(secondNumber) : -1;
        : secondIsNumber ? 1 : first.CompareTo(second);
}

... but in this case I don't think I would :)