Order list by parent and child items

Given "Parent" is nullable property (assuming nullable int here). Following should give you parent-child related ordered list:

 public class ProductDTO
 {
     public int Id { get; set; }
     public string Name { get; set; }
     public int? Parent { get; set; }
 }

 var products = new List<ProductDTO>();
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 1, Name = "Product One" });
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 2, Name = "Product Two" });
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 3, Name = "Product Three" });
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 4, Name = "Child One", Parent=1 });
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 5, Name = "Child Two", Parent = 2 });
 products.Add(new ProductDTO() { Id = 6, Name = "Child One", Parent = 1 });

var ordered = products
                .Where(p => p.Parent == null)
                .OrderBy(p=> p.Id)
                .Select(p => products
                    .Where(c => c.Parent == p.Id)
                    .OrderBy(c => c.Id))
                .ToList();

you could try something like that. Assuming parent is a nullable:

var sorted = list.OrderBy(x => x.parent ?? x.id).ThenBy(x=>x.id);

if its a string:

            var sorted = list.OrderBy(x =>
            {
                if (x.parent == "null")
                    return x.id;
                else
                    return Convert.ToInt32(x.parent);
            }).ThenBy(x => x.id);