Question

I have a two-dimensional array (of Strings) which make up my data table (of rows and columns). I want to sort this array by any column. I tried to find an algorithm for doing this in C#, but have not been successful.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Load your two-dimensional string array into an actual DataTable (System.Data.DataTable), and then use the DataTable object’s Select() method to generate a sorted array of DataRow objects (or use a DataView for a similar effect).

// assumes stringdata[row, col] is your 2D string array DataTable dt = new DataTable(); // assumes first row contains column names: for (int col = 0; col < stringdata.GetLength(1); col++) {     dt.Columns.Add(stringdata[0, col]); } // load data from string array to data table: for (rowindex = 1; rowindex < stringdata.GetLength(0); rowindex++) {     DataRow row = dt.NewRow();     for (int col = 0; col < stringdata.GetLength(1); col++)     {         row[col] = stringdata[rowindex, col];     }     dt.Rows.Add(row); } // sort by third column: DataRow[] sortedrows = dt.Select('', '3'); // sort by column name, descending: sortedrows = dt.Select('', 'COLUMN3 DESC'); 

You could also write your own method to sort a two-dimensional array. Both approaches would be useful learning experiences, but the DataTable approach would get you started on learning a better way of handling tables of data in a C# application.