How do I sort a two-dimensional (rectangular) array in C#?
Load your two-dimensional string array into an actual DataTable (System.Data.DataTable), and then use the DataTable object's Select() method to generate a sorted array of DataRow objects (or use a DataView for a similar effect).
// assumes stringdata[row, col] is your 2D string array
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
// assumes first row contains column names:
for (int col = 0; col < stringdata.GetLength(1); col++)
{
dt.Columns.Add(stringdata[0, col]);
}
// load data from string array to data table:
for (rowindex = 1; rowindex < stringdata.GetLength(0); rowindex++)
{
DataRow row = dt.NewRow();
for (int col = 0; col < stringdata.GetLength(1); col++)
{
row[col] = stringdata[rowindex, col];
}
dt.Rows.Add(row);
}
// sort by third column:
DataRow[] sortedrows = dt.Select("", "3");
// sort by column name, descending:
sortedrows = dt.Select("", "COLUMN3 DESC");
You could also write your own method to sort a two-dimensional array. Both approaches would be useful learning experiences, but the DataTable approach would get you started on learning a better way of handling tables of data in a C# application.
Can I check - do you mean a rectangular array ([,]
)or a jagged array ([][]
)?
It is quite easy to sort a jagged array; I have a discussion on that here. Obviously in this case the Comparison<T>
would involve a column instead of sorting by ordinal - but very similar.
Sorting a rectangular array is trickier... I'd probably be tempted to copy the data out into either a rectangular array or a List<T[]>
, and sort there, then copy back.
Here's an example using a jagged array:
static void Main()
{ // could just as easily be string...
int[][] data = new int[][] {
new int[] {1,2,3},
new int[] {2,3,4},
new int[] {2,4,1}
};
Sort<int>(data, 2);
}
private static void Sort<T>(T[][] data, int col)
{
Comparer<T> comparer = Comparer<T>.Default;
Array.Sort<T[]>(data, (x,y) => comparer.Compare(x[col],y[col]));
}
For working with a rectangular array... well, here is some code to swap between the two on the fly...
static T[][] ToJagged<T>(this T[,] array) {
int height = array.GetLength(0), width = array.GetLength(1);
T[][] jagged = new T[height][];
for (int i = 0; i < height; i++)
{
T[] row = new T[width];
for (int j = 0; j < width; j++)
{
row[j] = array[i, j];
}
jagged[i] = row;
}
return jagged;
}
static T[,] ToRectangular<T>(this T[][] array)
{
int height = array.Length, width = array[0].Length;
T[,] rect = new T[height, width];
for (int i = 0; i < height; i++)
{
T[] row = array[i];
for (int j = 0; j < width; j++)
{
rect[i, j] = row[j];
}
}
return rect;
}
// fill an existing rectangular array from a jagged array
static void WriteRows<T>(this T[,] array, params T[][] rows)
{
for (int i = 0; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
T[] row = rows[i];
for (int j = 0; j < row.Length; j++)
{
array[i, j] = row[j];
}
}
}