Sorting a list that is contained in a sub-class

Question

I'm trying to sort Chromes Bookmarks in alphabetical order with folders first and then urls

I have these classes (by Mr. Jason Grimme)

public class Bookmarks
    {
        public string Checksum { get; set; }
        public Root Roots { get; set; }
        public int Version { get; set; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Contains 'folders' such as 'Bookmarks bar' and 'Other bookmarks'
    /// </summary>
    public class Root
    {
        public RootItem Bookmark_bar { get; set; }
        public RootItem Other { get; set; }

    }

    /// <summary>
    /// A folder of bookmarks
    /// </summary>
    public class RootItem
    {
        public List<Child> Children { get; set; }
        public string Date_added { get; set; }
        public string Date_modified { get; set; }
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public String Name { get; set; }
        public string Type { get; set; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Contains information about a specific bookmark
    /// </summary>
    public class Child
    {
        public List<Child> Children { get; set; }
        public string date_added { get; set; }
        public int ID { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public String Type { get; set; }
        public Uri Url { get; set; }
    }

I using JavaScriptSerializer to deserialize and serialize the JSON file. The file is deserialized OK into the Bookmarks class structure.

Now I want to sort the the two lists RootItem.Children and Child.Children so that all folders comes first and then the urls all in alphabetical order.

How would I do this?

Answer 1

Use List.Sort(Comparison<T> comparison) with a custom Comparison.

This is untested code since I don't have your deserialized structure, you might need to spice it up with some null handling if Child.ChildItem can be null.
I also assume that Child.Type tells if the bookmark is a folder or an URL. If not, just change the comparisson return child1.Type.CompareTo(child2.Type); to something that sorts by folder/url.

public void SortChildren(List<Child> childList)
{
    childList.Sort((child1, child2) =>
    {
        if (child1.Type == child2.Type)
        {
             // Sort by name
             return child1.Name.CompareTo(child2.Name);
        }
        else
        {
            // Sort the type. If this sorts in reverse, swap child1 and child2
            return child1.Type.CompareTo(child2.Type);
        }

    });
    // Sort children recursively
    foreach(var child in childList)
    {
        SortChildren(child.Children);
    }
}

Start the sorting with

SortChildren(Root.Other.Children);

Edit
A more simple example of list sorting is

List<int> myInts = new List<int>{1,5,4,3,2};
myInts.Sort(); // default comparer
myInts.Sort((i1, i2) => { return i2.CompareTo(i1); }); // custom "reverse" comparison

Answer 2

If you want them all in the same list, then you have to create an object with the properties you need, like eg MyListItem.

I think referencing System.Linq; and then you can do a getter that select Children.Select(c => new MyListItem( Name = c.Name, etc ) .
You can then do the same for the urls but append .OrderBy(c => c.Url);
Finally you can add the last list to the first, using ToList() and Append .