Question

I have a MyObject class that contains a CreationDate As Date Property.

What is the best way to obtain a sorted by CreationDate List(Of MyObject)?

The quicker way and the most performant one.

Answer 1

Well with LINQ you could use:

Dim sorted = unsorted.OrderBy(Function(x) x.CreationDate) _
                     .ToList()

EDIT: If you’ve already got a List(Of T) you could use the in-place Sort method with a custom comparer. That may be faster. It may not. I suspect it’s unlikely to be a significant difference in performance, which is what you should be concerned about.

As a rule of thumb, I’d suggest:

• Work out what constitutes “adequate” performance
• Write code in the most readable way (which is likely to be LINQ rather than a custom comparer, IMO)
• Measure that code
• If it isn’t fast enough, try an alternative approach, and measure that. Compare the difference in performance with the difference in readability/maintainability.