While working on one of my modules I had a request to be able to sort the items in my DataList alphabetically. This seemed to be a trivial thing as far as I was concerned so off I went. I was using a DataTable to bind to the DataList control for viewing the links I was building. So with a quick search on Google I came up with some sample code to give me the basics of what I wanted to accomplish. So in the following I will present both a C# and VB version of the code for anyone to use in their applications.
VB.NET Version
1: Private Function AlphabeticSort(ByVal dtTable As DataTable, ByVal sortOrder As Integer) As DataTable
2: Dim dsSorted As New DataSet
3: Dim columnKey As String = "TabName"
4: Dim sortDirection As String = ""
5: Dim sortFormat As String = "{0} {1}"
6: Select Case sortOrder
7: Case 0
8: sortDirection = "ASC"
9: Case 1
10: sortDirection = "DESC"
11: Case Else
12: sortDirection = "ASC"
13: End Select
14: dtTable.DefaultView.Sort = String.Format(sortFormat, columnKey, sortDirection)
15: Return dtTable.DefaultView.Table
16: End Function
C# Version
1: private DataTable AlphabeticSort(DataTable dtTable, int sortOrder)
2: {
3: DataSet dsSorted = new DataSet();
4: string columnKey = "TabName";
5: string sortDirection = "";
6: string sortFormat = "{0} {1}";
7: switch(sortOrder)
8: {
9: case 0:
10: sortDirection = "ASC";
11: break;
12: case 1:
13: sortDirection = "DESC";
14: break;
15: default:
16: sortDirection = "ASC";
17: break;
18: }
19: dtTable.DefaultView.Sort = string.Format(sortFormat, columnKey, sortDirection);
20: return dtTable.DefaultView.Table;
21: }
As you can see the code is very familiar between the two. This works excellent for doing an alphabetic sort and very fast as well.
