C# Sortable collection which allows duplicate keys

Question

I am writing a program to set a sequence in which various objects will appear in report. The sequence is the Y position (cell) on Excel spreadsheet.

A demo part of co

Answer 1

The key (pun intended) to this is to create an IComparable-based class that maintains equality and hashing, but never compares to 0 if not equal. This can be done, and can be created with a couple bonuses - stable sorting (that is, values added to the sorted list first will maintain their position), and ToString() can simply return the actual key string value.

Here's a struct key that should do the trick:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

namespace System
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Defined in Totlsoft.Util.
    /// A key that will always be unique but compares
    /// primarily on the Key property, which is not required
    /// to be unique.
    /// </summary>
    public struct StableKey : IComparable<StableKey>, IComparable
    {
        private static long s_Next;
        private long m_Sequence;
        private IComparable m_Key;

        /// <summary>
        /// Defined in Totlsoft.Util.
        /// Constructs a StableKey with the given IComparable key.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="key"></param>
        public StableKey( IComparable key )
        {
            if( null == key )
                throw new ArgumentNullException( "key" );

            m_Sequence = Interlocked.Increment( ref s_Next );
            m_Key = key;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Overridden. True only if internal sequence and the
        /// Key are equal.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="obj"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public override bool Equals( object obj )
        {
            if( !( obj is StableKey ) )
                return false;

            var dk = (StableKey)obj;

            return m_Sequence.Equals( dk.m_Sequence ) &&
                Key.Equals( dk.Key );
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Overridden. Gets the hash code of the internal
        /// sequence and the Key.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public override int GetHashCode()
        {
            return m_Sequence.GetHashCode() ^ Key.GetHashCode();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Overridden. Returns Key.ToString().
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public override string ToString()
        {
            return Key.ToString();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// The key that will be compared on.
        /// </summary>
        public IComparable Key
        {
            get
            {
                if( null == m_Key )
                    return 0;

                return m_Key;
            }
        }

        #region IComparable<StableKey> Members

        /// <summary>
        /// Compares this Key property to another. If they
        /// are the same, compares the incremented value.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="other"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public int CompareTo( StableKey other )
        {
            var cmp = Key.CompareTo( other.Key );
            if( cmp == 0 )
                cmp = m_Sequence.CompareTo( other.m_Sequence );

            return cmp;
        }

        #endregion

        #region IComparable Members

        int IComparable.CompareTo( object obj )
        {
            return CompareTo( (StableKey)obj );
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

Answer 2

Simplest solution (compared to all of the above): use SortedSet<T>, it accepts an IComparer<SortableKey> class, then implement the Compare method this way:

public int Compare(SomeClass x, SomeClass y)
{
    var compared = x.SomeSortableKeyTypeField.CompareTo(y.SomeSortableKeyTypeField);
    if (compared != 0)
        return compared;

    // to allow duplicates
    var hashCodeCompare = x.GetHashCode().CompareTo(y.GetHashCode());
    if (hashCodeCompare != 0)
        return hashCodeCompare;

    if (Object.ReferenceEquals(x, y))
        return 0;

    // for weird duplicate hashcode cases, throw as below or implement your last chance comparer
    throw new ComparisonFailureException();

}

Answer 3

I use the following:

public class TupleList<T1, T2> : List<Tuple<T1, T2>> where T1 : IComparable
{
    public void Add(T1 item, T2 item2)
    {
        Add(new Tuple<T1, T2>(item, item2));
    }

    public new void Sort()
    {
        Comparison<Tuple<T1, T2>> c = (a, b) => a.Item1.CompareTo(b.Item1);
        base.Sort(c);
    }

}

My test case:

[TestMethod()]
    public void SortTest()
    {
        TupleList<int, string> list = new TupleList<int, string>();
        list.Add(1, "cat");
        list.Add(1, "car");
        list.Add(2, "dog");
        list.Add(2, "door");
        list.Add(3, "elephant");
        list.Add(1, "coconut");
        list.Add(1, "cab");
        list.Sort();
        foreach(Tuple<int, string> tuple in list)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}:{1}", tuple.Item1,tuple.Item2));
        }
        int expected_first = 1;
        int expected_last = 3;
        int first = list.First().Item1;  //requires using System.Linq
        int last = list.Last().Item1;    //requires using System.Linq
        Assert.AreEqual(expected_first, first);
        Assert.AreEqual(expected_last, last);
    }

The output:

1:cab
1:coconut
1:car
1:cat
2:door
2:dog
3:elephant

Answer 4

This collection class will maintain duplicates and insert sort order for the duplicate. The trick is to tag the items with a unique value as they are inserted to maintain a stable sort order. Then we wrap it all up in an ICollection interface.

public class SuperSortedSet<TValue> : ICollection<TValue>
{
    private readonly SortedSet<Indexed<TValue>> _Container;
    private int _Index = 0;
    private IComparer<TValue> _Comparer;

    public SuperSortedSet(IComparer<TValue> comparer)
    {
        _Comparer = comparer;
        var c2 = new System.Linq.Comparer<Indexed<TValue>>((p0, p1) =>
        {
            var r = _Comparer.Compare(p0.Value, p1.Value);
            if (r == 0)
            {
                if (p0.Index == -1
                    || p1.Index == -1)
                    return 0;

                return p0.Index.CompareTo(p1.Index);

            }
            else return r;
        });
        _Container = new SortedSet<Indexed<TValue>>(c2);
    } 

    public IEnumerator<TValue> GetEnumerator() { return _Container.Select(p => p.Value).GetEnumerator(); }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() { return GetEnumerator(); }

    public void Add(TValue item) { _Container.Add(Indexed.Create(_Index++, item)); }

    public void Clear() { _Container.Clear();}

    public bool Contains(TValue item) { return _Container.Contains(Indexed.Create(-1,item)); }

    public void CopyTo(TValue[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        foreach (var value in this)
        {
            if (arrayIndex >= array.Length)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Not enough space in array");
            }
            array[arrayIndex] = value;
            arrayIndex++;
        }
    }

    public bool Remove(TValue item) { return _Container.Remove(Indexed.Create(-1, item)); }

    public int Count {
        get { return _Container.Count; }
    }
    public bool IsReadOnly {
        get { return false; }
    }
}

a test class

[Fact]
public void ShouldWorkWithSuperSortedSet()
{
    // Sort points according to X
    var set = new SuperSortedSet<Point2D>
        (new System.Linq.Comparer<Point2D>((p0, p1) => p0.X.CompareTo(p1.X)));

    set.Add(new Point2D(9,10));
    set.Add(new Point2D(1,25));
    set.Add(new Point2D(11,-10));
    set.Add(new Point2D(2,99));
    set.Add(new Point2D(5,55));
    set.Add(new Point2D(5,23));
    set.Add(new Point2D(11,11));
    set.Add(new Point2D(21,12));
    set.Add(new Point2D(-1,76));
    set.Add(new Point2D(16,21));

    var xs = set.Select(p=>p.X).ToList();
    xs.Should().BeInAscendingOrder();
    xs.Count.Should()
       .Be(10);
    xs.ShouldBeEquivalentTo(new[]{-1,1,2,5,5,9,11,11,16,21});

    set.Remove(new Point2D(5,55));
    xs = set.Select(p=>p.X).ToList();
    xs.Count.Should()
       .Be(9);
    xs.ShouldBeEquivalentTo(new[]{-1,1,2,5,9,11,11,16,21});

    set.Remove(new Point2D(5,23));
    xs = set.Select(p=>p.X).ToList();
    xs.Count.Should()
       .Be(8);
    xs.ShouldBeEquivalentTo(new[]{-1,1,2,9,11,11,16,21});

    set.Contains(new Point2D(11, 11))
       .Should()
       .BeTrue();

    set.Contains(new Point2D(-1, 76))
        .Should().BeTrue();

    // Note that the custom compartor function ignores the Y value
    set.Contains(new Point2D(-1, 66))
        .Should().BeTrue();

    set.Contains(new Point2D(27, 66))
        .Should().BeFalse();

}

The tagging struct

public struct Indexed<T>
{
    public int Index { get; private set; }
    public T Value { get; private set; }
    public Indexed(int index, T value) : this()
    {
        Index = index;
        Value = value;
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return "(Indexed: " + Index + ", " + Value.ToString () + " )";
    }
}

public class Indexed
{
    public static Indexed<T> Create<T>(int indexed, T value)
    {
        return new Indexed<T>(indexed, value);
    }
}

The lambda comparer helper

public class Comparer<T> : IComparer<T>
{
    private readonly Func<T, T, int> _comparer;

    public Comparer(Func<T, T, int> comparer)
    {
        if (comparer == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("comparer");
        _comparer = comparer;
    }

    public int Compare(T x, T y)
    {
        return _comparer(x, y);
    }
}

Answer 5

The problem is that you use something as key that isn't a key (cause it occurs multiple times).

So if you have real coordinates you should maybe take the Point as the key for your SortedList.

Or you create a List<List<Header>> where your first list index defines the x-position and the inner list index the y-position (or vice versa if you like).

Answer 6

Did you try Lookup<TKey, TElement> that will allow duplicate keys http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb460184.aspx