Question

I have a list (i.e. Dim nList as new List(of className)). Each class has a property named zIndex (i.e. className.zIndex). Is it possible to sort the elements of the list by the zIndex variable in all of the elements of the list?

Answer 1

Assuming you have LINQ at your disposal:

Sub Main()
    Dim list = New List(Of Person)()
    'Pretend the list has stuff in it
    Dim sorted = list.OrderBy(Function(x) x.zIndex)
End Sub

Public Class Person
    Public Property zIndex As Integer
End Class

Or if LINQ isn’t your thing:

Dim list = New List(Of Person)()
list.Sort(Function(x, y) x.zIndex.CompareTo(y.zIndex))
'Will sort list in place

LINQ offers more flexibility; such as being able to use ThenBy if you want to order by more than one thing. It also makes for a slightly cleaner syntax.