Linq OrderBy against specific values

Question

Is there a way in Linq to do an OrderBy against a set of values (strings in this case) without knowing the order of the values?

Consider this data:

A         


        

Answer 1

I use these. I like the IEnumerable overload for cleanliness, but the priority map version should have better performance on repeated calls.

    public static IEnumerable<T> OrderByStaticList<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, IReadOnlyDictionary<T, double> priorityMap)
    {
        return items.OrderBy(x => priorityMap.GetValueOrDefault(x, double.MaxValue));
    }

    public static IEnumerable<T> OrderByStaticList<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, IEnumerable<T> preferenceOrder)
    {
        int priority = 0;
        var priorityMap = preferenceOrder.ToDictionary(x => x, x => (double) priority++);
        return OrderByStaticList(items, priorityMap);
    }




    [TestMethod]
    public void PriorityMap_DeterminesSort()
    {
        var map = new Dictionary<char, double>()
        {
            {'A', 1},
            {'B', 7},
            {'C', 3},
            {'D', 42},
            {'E', -1},
        };
        Assert.AreEqual("EACBD", new string("ABCDE".OrderByStaticList(map).ToArray()));
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void PriorityMapMissingItem_SortsLast()
    {
        var map = new Dictionary<char, double>()
        {
            {'A', 1},
            {'B', 7},
            {'D', 42},
            {'E', -1},
        };
        Assert.AreEqual("EABDC", new string("ABCDE".OrderByStaticList(map).ToArray()));
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void OrderedList_DeterminesSort()
    {
        Assert.AreEqual("EACBD", new string("ABCDE".OrderByStaticList("EACBD").ToArray()));
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void OrderedListMissingItem_SortsLast()
    {
        Assert.AreEqual("EABDC", new string("ABCDE".OrderByStaticList("EABD").ToArray()));
    }

Answer 2

Combined all answers (and more) into a generic LINQ extension supporting caching which handles any data type, can be case-insensitive and allows to be chained with pre- and post-ordering:

public static class SortBySample
{
    public static BySampleSorter<TKey> Create<TKey>(IEnumerable<TKey> fixedOrder, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
    {
        return new BySampleSorter<TKey>(fixedOrder, comparer);
    }

    public static BySampleSorter<TKey> Create<TKey>(IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer, params TKey[] fixedOrder)
    {
        return new BySampleSorter<TKey>(fixedOrder, comparer);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> OrderBySample<TSource, TKey>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, BySampleSorter<TKey> sample)
    {
        return sample.OrderBySample(source, keySelector);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> ThenBySample<TSource, TKey>(this IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, BySampleSorter<TKey> sample)
    {
        return sample.ThenBySample(source, keySelector);
    }
}

public class BySampleSorter<TKey>
{
    private readonly Dictionary<TKey, int> dict;

    public BySampleSorter(IEnumerable<TKey> fixedOrder, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
    {
        this.dict = fixedOrder
            .Select((key, index) => new KeyValuePair<TKey, int>(key, index))
            .ToDictionary(kv => kv.Key, kv => kv.Value, comparer ?? EqualityComparer<TKey>.Default);
    }

    public BySampleSorter(IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer, params TKey[] fixedOrder)
        : this(fixedOrder, comparer)
    {
    }

    public IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> OrderBySample<TSource>(IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector)
    {
        return source.OrderBy(item => this.GetOrderKey(keySelector(item)));
    }

    public IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> ThenBySample<TSource>(IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector)
    {
        return source.CreateOrderedEnumerable(item => this.GetOrderKey(keySelector(item)), Comparer<int>.Default, false);
    }

    private int GetOrderKey(TKey key)
    {
        int index;
        return dict.TryGetValue(key, out index) ? index : int.MaxValue;
    }
}

Sample usage using LINQPad-Dump():

var sample = SortBySample.Create(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase, "one", "two", "three", "four");
var unsorted = new[] {"seven", "six", "five", "four", "THREE", "tWo", "One", "zero"};
unsorted
    .OrderBySample(x => x, sample)
    .ThenBy(x => x)
    .Dump("sorted by sample then by content");
unsorted
    .OrderBy(x => x.Length)
    .ThenBySample(x => x, sample)
    .Dump("sorted by length then by sample");