Sorting GridView with a Collection as DataSource+

danielpilon · June 9th, 2008, 08:10 AM

Hello, I'm trying to sort my GridView and I have an ObjectDataSource that receives a List<> in the return of the Select Method. Everything is workin' fine, but I recieve an Exception when I try to sort my GridView and searching through the web, I realize that the GridView does not perform the automatic sorting when working with List<> objects. What I would like to know is if there is anyone that have this problem and, if so, have found a solution.

Thanks

Imar · June 9th, 2008, 12:37 PM

Hi there,

Take a look here: http://imar.spaanjaars.com/QuickDocId.aspx?quickdoc=428

Cheers,

Imar

---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 : in C# and VB, ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Dreamweaver MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

danielpilon · June 9th, 2008, 02:46 PM

Very nice. The article helped me to came with a solution for my problem. I just made some changes and build a unique class that I can use to sort any custom object, but the philosophy is the same. Thanks a lot!

Imar · June 9th, 2008, 03:51 PM

Glad you got it working.

Would you mind showing your final code with this forum?

Cheers,

Imar

---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 : in C# and VB, ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Dreamweaver MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

danielpilon · June 10th, 2008, 07:06 AM

Sure. I was working with a class that I grab from another article, but this class wasn't working for my needs, because it doesn't work with ObjectDataSource. And with your article, the solution works fine for ObjectDataSources, but in my project I will have to do the custom sorting for several classes and what I wanted was something reusable. Then, I just adapted the two approaches into a single class. That's what I did:

First I've created a class that implements the IComparer interface:

Code:

1    using System;
2    using System.Reflection;
3    using System.Collections;
4    using System.Collections.Generic;
5    using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
6    
7    public class GenericComparer<T> : IComparer<T>
8        {
9            string sortExpression;
10           SortDirection sortDirection;
11   
12           public GenericComparer(string sortExpression)
13           {
14               if (sortExpression.ToLowerInvariant().EndsWith(" desc"))
15               {
16                   this.sortExpression = sortExpression.Substring(0, sortExpression.Length - 5);
17                   sortDirection = SortDirection.Descending;
18               }
19               else
20               {
21                   this.sortExpression = sortExpression;
22                   sortDirection = SortDirection.Ascending;
23               }
24           }
25   
26           public int Compare(T x, T y)
27           {
28               PropertyInfo propertyInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty(sortExpression);
29               IComparable obj1 = (IComparable)propertyInfo.GetValue(x, null);
30               IComparable obj2 = (IComparable)propertyInfo.GetValue(y, null);
31               if (sortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending)
32               {
33                   return obj1.CompareTo(obj2);
34               }
35               else
36               {
37                   return obj2.CompareTo(obj1);
38               }
39           }
40       }

Than in my business layer, my select method stayed like this:

Code:

public static ClientList getList(string sortExpression)
        {
            ClientList clients = ClientDB.getList();

            if (sortExpression.Length > 0)
            {
                clients.Sort(new GenericComparer(sortExpression));
            }

            return clients;
        }

Imar · June 10th, 2008, 01:11 PM

Are you sure that code compiles? Don't you need a <T> type parameter for the Compare method to work:

Code:

public class GenericComparer<T> : IComparer<T>
{
  ...
}

Now that it's generic, it may be worth adding an overload for Sort on the List<T> class so you can simple do stuff like this:

Code:

List<Person> myList = new List<Person>();
myList.Add(new Person(){FirstName="Imar", LastName="Spaanjaars"});
myList.Add(new Person(){FirstName="Daniel", LastName="Pilon"});

myList.Sort("FirstName");

All you need is an extension method like this:

Code:

public static class ListExtensions
{
  public static void Sort<T>(this List<T> theList, string sortExpression)
  {
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sortExpression))
    {
      theList.Sort(new GenericComparer<T>(sortExpression));
    }
  }
}

and a using statement like this in the class that needs the extension overload:

Code:

using MyExtensons;

Sweet...... ;)

If I find some time this weekend, I'll write a slightly longer blog about this.

Cheers,

Imar

---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 : in C# and VB, ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Dreamweaver MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.

danielpilon · June 10th, 2008, 02:03 PM

The problem is that my code is written in portuguese and to post it here I translate some expressions and I cut off the <T> type parameter, but, yes, I have it on my class. Sorry, my mistake. And I really enjoy the extensions idea. Thanks again!

Imar · June 10th, 2008, 04:20 PM

You're welcome, and thank you too.

Imar

---------------------------------------
Imar Spaanjaars
http://Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
Everyone is unique, except for me.
Author of Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 : in C# and VB, ASP.NET 2.0 Instant Results and Dreamweaver MX 2004
Want to be my colleague? Then check out this post.