Question

Two things jump to mind: using a Gee.TreeSet, which is always sorted, or calling Gee.ArrayList.sort.

The first feels like overkill and I can’t find documentation on the other. What’s the smartest way to proceed?

Answer 1

If you have an array, you can try using the POSIX qsort function like this:

int cmpfunc(ref string x, ref string y) {
    return Posix.strcmp(x, y);
}
var strs = new string[] {"x", "z", "fred"};
Posix.qsort (strs, strs.length, sizeof(string), (Posix.compar_fn_t) cmpfunc);

and be sure to compile with --pkg posix. You may want to use strcoll instead if sorting for the user.