Extension method using Reflection to Sort

Posted by Xavier on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Xavier
Published on 2009-09-25T20:34:33Z Indexed on 2010/05/12 23:04 UTC
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I implemented an extension "MyExtensionSortMethod" to sort collections (IEnumerate). This allows me to replace code such as 'entities.OrderBy( ... ).ThenByDescending( ...)' by 'entities.MyExtensionSortMethod()' (no parameter as well).

Here is a sample of implementation:

//test function
function Test(IEnumerable<ClassA> entitiesA,IEnumerable<ClassB> entitiesB ) {
   //Sort entitiesA , based on ClassA MySort method
   var aSorted = entitiesA.MyExtensionSortMethod(); 

   //Sort entitiesB , based on ClassB MySort method
   var bSorted = entitiesB.MyExtensionSortMethod(); 
}

//Class A definition
public classA: IMySort<classA> {
  ....

  public IEnumerable<classA> MySort(IEnumerable<classA> entities)
  {
      return entities.OrderBy( ... ).ThenBy( ...);  
  }
}

public classB: IMySort<classB> {
  ....

  public IEnumerable<classB> MySort(IEnumerable<classB> entities)
  {
      return entities.OrderByDescending( ... ).ThenBy( ...).ThenBy( ... );  
  }
}

//extension method
public static IEnumerable<T> MyExtensionSortMethod<T>(this IEnumerable<T> e) where T : IMySort<T>, new()
{
    //the extension should call MySort of T
    Type t = typeof(T);
    var methodInfo = t.GetMethod("MySort");

    //invoke MySort 
    var result = methodInfo.Invoke(new T(), new object[] {e});

    //Return 
    return (IEnumerable < T >)result;
}

public interface IMySort<TEntity> where TEntity : class
{
    IEnumerable<TEntity> MySort(IEnumerable<TEntity> entities);
}

However, it seems a bit complicated compared to what it does so I was wondering if they were another way of doing it?

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