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

You can safely use List<> . The List has a Sort method , an overload of which accepts IComparer. You can create your own sorter class as . Here's an example :

private List<Curve> Curves;
this.Curves.Sort(new CurveSorter());

public class CurveSorter : IComparer<Curve>
{
    public int Compare(Curve c1, Curve c2)
    {
        return c2.CreationTime.CompareTo(c1.CreationTime);
    }
}

Answer 2

Create a class and query the list:

Public Class SortingAlgorithm
{
    public int ID {get; set;}
    public string name {get; set;}
    public string address1 {get; set;}
    public string city {get; set;}
    public string state {get; set;}
    public int age {get; set;}
}

//declare a sorting algorithm list
List<SortingAlgorithm> sortAlg = new List<SortingAlgorithm>();

//Add multiple values to the list
sortAlg.Add( new SortingAlgorithm() {ID = ID, name = name, address1 = address1, city = city, state = state, age = age});
sortAlg.Add( new SortingAlgorithm() {ID = ID, name = name, address1 = address1, city = city, state = state, age = age});
sortAlg.Add( new SortingAlgorithm() {ID = ID, name = name, address1 = address1, city = city, state = state, age = age});

//query and order by the list
  var sortedlist = (from s in sortAlg
                    select new { s.ID, s.name, s.address1, s.city, s.state, s.age })
                                                     .OrderBy(r => r.ID)
                                                     .ThenBy(r=> r.name)
                                                     .ThenBy(r=> r.city)
                                                     .ThenBy(r=>r.state)
                                                     .ThenBy(r=>r.age);

Answer 3

Here's my take on this. Be aware, here might be dragons, C# still still quite new for me.

• Duplicate keys are allowed, values are stored in a list
• I used it as a sorted queue, hence the names and methods

Usage:

SortedQueue<MyClass> queue = new SortedQueue<MyClass>();
// new list on key "0" is created and item added
queue.Enqueue(0, first);
// new list on key "1" is created and item added
queue.Enqueue(1, second);
// items is added into list on key "0"
queue.Enqueue(0, third);
// takes the first item from list with smallest key
MyClass myClass = queue.Dequeue();

class SortedQueue<T> {
  public int Count;
  public SortedList<int, List<T>> Queue;

  public SortedQueue() {
    Count = 0;
    Queue = new SortedList<int, List<T>>();
  }

  public void Enqueue(int key, T value) {
    List<T> values;
    if (!Queue.TryGetValue(key, out values)){
      values = new List<T>();
      Queue.Add(key, values);
      Count += 1;
    }
    values.Add(value);
  }

  public T Dequeue() {
    if (Queue.Count > 0) {
      List<T> smallest = Queue.Values[0];
      if (smallest.Count > 0) {
        T item = smallest[0];
        smallest.Remove(item);
        return item;
      } else {
        Queue.RemoveAt(0);
        Count -= 1;
        return Dequeue();
      }
    }
    return default(T);
  }
}

Answer 4

The trick is to augment your object with a unique key. See the following test which passes. I want to keep my points sorted by their X value. Just using a naked Point2D in my comparison function will cause points with the same X value to be eliminated. So I wrap the Point2D in a tagging class called Indexed.

[Fact]
public void ShouldBeAbleToUseCustomComparatorWithSortedSet()
{
    // Create comparer that compares on X value but when X
    // X values are uses the index
    var comparer = new 
        System.Linq.Comparer<Indexed<Point2D>>(( p0, p1 ) =>
        {
            var r = p0.Value.X.CompareTo(p1.Value.X);
            return r == 0 ? p0.Index.CompareTo(p1.Index) : r;
        });

    // Sort points according to X
    var set = new SortedSet<Indexed<Point2D>>(comparer);

    int i=0;

    // Create a helper function to wrap each point in a unique index
    Action<Point2D> index = p =>
    {
        var ip = Indexed.Create(i++, p);
        set.Add(ip);
    };

    index(new Point2D(9,10));
    index(new Point2D(1,25));
    index(new Point2D(11,-10));
    index(new Point2D(2,99));
    index(new Point2D(5,55));
    index(new Point2D(5,23));
    index(new Point2D(11,11));
    index(new Point2D(21,12));
    index(new Point2D(-1,76));
    index(new Point2D(16,21));
    set.Count.Should()
       .Be(10);
    var xs = set.Select(p=>p.Value.X).ToList();
    xs.Should()
      .BeInAscendingOrder();
    xs.ShouldBeEquivalentTo(new[]{-1,1,2,5,5,9,11,11,16,21});

}

Utilities to make this work are

A comparer that takes a lambda

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);
    }
}

A 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);
    }
}