Question

What would be the efficient way of sorting typeof(EnumType) alphabetically?

The enum values have index non-sequential however sorted in alphabetic order.
(i.e. apple = 5, banana = 2, cantaloupe = 3)

Instantiating temporarily is fine.

Eventually I need the index code for the specific enum value selected.

I am asking because the method I came up with does not look the best:

Array tmp = Enum.GetValues(typeof(EnumType));
string[] myenum = tmp.OfType<object>().Select(o => o.ToString()).ToArray();
Array.Sort(myenum);
int enum_code = (int)Enum.Parse(typeof(EnumType), myenum.GetValue((int)selected_index).ToString());
string final_code = enum_code.ToString());

Answer 1

You could use Linq to write more compact and maintainable code. Unless you’re doing this in the inner loop of a high-performance application, I doubt the speed of Linq vs. your original code vs. any other possible implementation will matter at all:

var sorted = (from e in Enum.GetValues(typeof(EnumType)).Cast<EnumType>()
              orderby e.ToString() select e).ToList();