List<string> complex sorting

arraylist, c#, lambda, linq, sorting

Solution

Create an array of sizes in the order you want them to be in, then sort the shirts by the position of their sizes in that array:

string[] sizes = new [] {"XS", "S", "M", "L", "XL", "XXL", "UK 10", "UK 12"};

var shirtsInOrder = shirts
                        .OrderBy(s=>sizes.Contains(s) ? "0" : "1")  // put unmatched sizes at the end
                        .ThenBy(s=>Array.IndexOf(sizes,s))  // sort matches by size
                        .ThenBy(s=>s); // sort rest A-Z

Problem

I have a `List<string>` of sizes, say XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, UK 10, UK 12 etc What I want is to force the order to be that of above, regardless of the order of items in the list, I think I need a IComparable operator but unsure. Ideally I want to have another List with the correct order in which it can reference it's 'place' in the list and re-sort itself, if it doesn't exist it will default to A-Z

Original source