Question

I have a method in a webservice that has parameter with which users can decide how they want to order their results. This is a List(Of String) with the names of the fields in the order they want to sort them.

I know I can normally order on multiple columns by doing the following

Dim test = Bars.OrderBy(Function(x) x.Foo) _
               .ThenBy(Function(x) x.Bar) _
               .ThenBy(Function(x) x.Test)

However in this case this won’t work since I can’t chain the ThenBy function because I’m adding the sorting orders in a loop. To use ThenBy I need an IOrderedQueryable collection. This is how I would want it to work

Dim sortColumns = {"Foo", "Bar", "Test"}
Dim query = From b in Bars
For each column in sortColumns
    Select Case column
        Case "Foo"
            query = query.Orderby(Function(x) x.Foo)
        Case "Bar"
            query = query.Orderby(Function(x) x.Bar)
        Case "Test"
            query = query.Orderby(Function(x) x.Test)
    End Select
Next

Dim result = query.Select(Function(x) x.x).ToList()
Return result

This of course won’t work because OrderBy will replace any previous ordering. The only solution I can think of is ordering the list on some other variable first so I already have an IOrderedQueryable collection but this just seems like the wrong approach.

Dim bars As New List(Of Bar)
Dim sortColumns = {"Foo", "Bar", "Test"}
Dim query = bars.Select(Function(x) New With {.Temp = 1, .x = x}) _
                .OrderBy(Function(x) x.Temp)

For Each column In sortColumns
    Select Case column
        Case "Foo"
            query = query.ThenBy(Function(x) x.x.Foo)
        Case "Bar"
            query = query.ThenBy(Function(x) x.x.Bar)
        Case "Test"
            query = query.ThenBy(Function(x) x.x.Test)
    End Select
Next

Dim result = query.Select(Function(x) x.x).ToList()
Return result    

Answer 1

You could write your own extension method OrderByOrThenBy which checks whether the value is already an IOrderedQueryable, uses ThenBy if so and OrderBy otherwise. Slightly smelly, but not terribly hard to do.

EDIT: C# sample (untested):

public static class QueryableOrdering
{
    public static IOrderedQueryable<TElement> OrderByOrThenBy<TElement, TKey>
        (this IQueryable<TElement> source,
         Expression<Func<TElement, TKey>> ordering)
    {
        if (source == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
        }
        if (ordering == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("ordering");
        }
        var ordered = source as IOrderedQueryable<TElement>;
        return ordered == null ? source.OrderBy(ordering)
                               : ordered.ThenBy(ordering);
    }
}