Question

I am using this LINQ statement to sort a list by product name (ascending order) which contains product names (string) and Sizes available for each product (List<byte>);

LinkedList<FullItemDetails> itemDetails = new LinkedList<FullItemDetails>();  

public class FullItemDetails   
{
    public string ProductName { get; set; }
    public List<byte> Sizes { get; set; }
}

Now every time I input a new entry ex; Jacket,6,12,18,10, I think my program is sorting my list all over again;

itemDetails.AddLast(fullItemDetails);

//SortedProducts
itemDetails = Products.OrderBy(x => x.ProductName).ToList();

If the list is already sorted I only need to put the last entry in its correct place.
What is the best way to do it. Also to reduce the complexity of the algorithm. thanks

Answer 1

This seems like an ideal problem for a SortedList, as you have a key (name) and value (List<int> for the size).

Documentation is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.sortedlist.aspx

The list declaration would look like this: SortedList<string, List<int> >. All inserts would be sorted on string, and the values can be enumerated based on each key.