Generic List - moving an item within the list

I know you said "generic list" but you didn't specify that you needed to use the List(T) class so here is a shot at something different.

The ObservableCollection(T) class has a Move method that does exactly what you want.

public void Move(int oldIndex, int newIndex)

Underneath it is basically implemented like this.

T item = base[oldIndex];
base.RemoveItem(oldIndex);
base.InsertItem(newIndex, item);

So as you can see the swap method that others have suggested is essentially what the ObservableCollection does in it's own Move method.

UPDATE 2015-12-30: You can see the source code for the Move and MoveItem methods in corefx now for yourself without using Reflector/ILSpy since .NET is open source.

var item = list[oldIndex];

list.RemoveAt(oldIndex);

if (newIndex > oldIndex) newIndex--; 
// the actual index could have shifted due to the removal

list.Insert(newIndex, item);

Put into Extension methods they look like:

    public static void Move<T>(this List<T> list, int oldIndex, int newIndex)
    {
        var item = list[oldIndex];

        list.RemoveAt(oldIndex);

        if (newIndex > oldIndex) newIndex--;
        // the actual index could have shifted due to the removal

        list.Insert(newIndex, item);
    }

    public static void Move<T>(this List<T> list, T item, int newIndex)
    {
        if (item != null)
        {
            var oldIndex = list.IndexOf(item);
            if (oldIndex > -1)
            {
                list.RemoveAt(oldIndex);

                if (newIndex > oldIndex) newIndex--;
                // the actual index could have shifted due to the removal

                list.Insert(newIndex, item);
            }
        }

    }

List<T>.Remove() and List<T>.RemoveAt() do not return the item that is being removed.

Therefore you have to use this:

var item = list[oldIndex];
list.RemoveAt(oldIndex);
list.Insert(newIndex, item);

I know this question is old but I adapted THIS response of javascript code to C#. Hope it helps

public static void Move<T>(this List<T> list, int oldIndex, int newIndex)
{
    // exit if positions are equal or outside array
    if ((oldIndex == newIndex) || (0 > oldIndex) || (oldIndex >= list.Count) || (0 > newIndex) ||
        (newIndex >= list.Count)) return;
    // local variables
    var i = 0;
    T tmp = list[oldIndex];
    // move element down and shift other elements up
    if (oldIndex < newIndex)
    {
        for (i = oldIndex; i < newIndex; i++)
        {
            list[i] = list[i + 1];
        }
    }
        // move element up and shift other elements down
    else
    {
        for (i = oldIndex; i > newIndex; i--)
        {
            list[i] = list[i - 1];
        }
    }
    // put element from position 1 to destination
    list[newIndex] = tmp;
}