Sorting a DropDownList? - C#, ASP.NET

Question

I\'m curious as to the best route (more looking towards simplicity, not speed or efficiency) to sort a DropDownList in C#/ASP.NET - I\'ve looked at a few recommendations b

Answer 1

Try it

-------Store Procedure-----(SQL)

USE [Your Database]
GO


CRATE PROC [dbo].[GetAllDataByID]

@ID int


AS
BEGIN
        SELECT * FROM Your_Table
        WHERE ID=@ID
        ORDER BY Your_ColumnName 
END

----------Default.aspx---------

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlYourTable" runat="server"></asp:DropDownList>

---------Default.aspx.cs-------

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

      if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                List<YourTable> table= new List<YourTable>();

                YourtableRepository tableRepo = new YourtableRepository();

                int conuntryInfoID=1;

                table= tableRepo.GetAllDataByID(ID);

                ddlYourTable.DataSource = stateInfo;
                ddlYourTable.DataTextField = "Your_ColumnName";
                ddlYourTable.DataValueField = "ID";
                ddlYourTable.DataBind();

            }
        }

-------LINQ Helper Class----

public class TableRepository

   {

        string connstr;

        public TableRepository() 
        {
            connstr = Settings.Default.YourTableConnectionString.ToString();
        }

        public List<YourTable> GetAllDataByID(int ID)
        {
            List<YourTable> table= new List<YourTable>();
            using (YourTableDBDataContext dc = new YourTableDBDataContext ())
            {
                table= dc.GetAllDataByID(ID).ToList();
            }
            return table;
        }
    }

Answer 2

If your data is coming to you as a System.Data.DataTable, call the DataTable's .Select() method, passing in "" for the filterExpression and "COLUMN1 ASC" (or whatever column you want to sort by) for the sort. This will return an array of DataRow objects, sorted as specified, that you can then iterate through and dump into the DropDownList.

Answer 3

If you are adding options to the dropdown one by one without a dataset and you want to sort it later after adding items, here's a solution:

DataTable dtOptions = new DataTable();
DataColumn[] dcColumns = { new DataColumn("Text", Type.GetType("System.String")), 
                           new DataColumn("Value", Type.GetType("System.String"))};
dtOptions.Columns.AddRange(dcColumns);
foreach (ListItem li in ddlOperation.Items)
{
   DataRow dr = dtOptions.NewRow();
   dr["Text"] = li.Text;
   dr["Value"] = li.Value;
   dtOptions.Rows.Add(dr);
}
DataView dv = dtOptions.DefaultView;
dv.Sort = "Text";
ddlOperation.Items.Clear();
ddlOperation.DataSource = dv;
ddlOperation.DataTextField = "Text";
ddlOperation.DataValueField = "Value";
ddlOperation.DataBind();

This would sort the dropdown items in alphabetical order.

Answer 4

It is recommended to sort the data before databinding it to the DropDownList but in case you can not, this is how you would sort the items in the DropDownList.

First you need a comparison class

Public Class ListItemComparer
    Implements IComparer(Of ListItem)

    Public Function Compare(ByVal x As ListItem, ByVal y As ListItem) As Integer _
        Implements IComparer(Of ListItem).Compare

        Dim c As New CaseInsensitiveComparer
        Return c.Compare(x.Text, y.Text)
    End Function
End Class

Then you need a method that will use this Comparer to sort the DropDownList

Public Shared Sub SortDropDown(ByVal cbo As DropDownList)
    Dim lstListItems As New List(Of ListItem)
    For Each li As ListItem In cbo.Items
        lstListItems.Add(li)
    Next
    lstListItems.Sort(New ListItemComparer)
    cbo.Items.Clear()
    cbo.Items.AddRange(lstListItems.ToArray)
End Sub

Finally, call this function with your DropDownList (after it's been databound)

SortDropDown(cboMyDropDown)

P.S. Sorry but my choice of language is VB. You can use http://converter.telerik.com/ to convert the code from VB to C#

Answer 5

What kind of object are you using for databinding? Typically I use Collection<T>, List<T>, or Queue<T> (depending on circumstances). These are relatively easy to sort using a custom delegate. See MSDN documentation on the Comparison(T) delegate.

Answer 6

Assuming you are running the latest version of the .Net Framework this will work:

List<string> items = GetItemsFromSomewhere();
items.Sort((x, y) => string.Compare(x, y));
DropDownListId.DataSource = items;
DropDownListId.DataBind();