C# Array.Sort: Keys, Values and Ranges
Use the Array.Sort method to order array elements based on keys, values and ranges.Array.Sort. This method orders elements in an array. It modifies the array in-place. It handles different types of elements, including strings and ints.
Sort A key advantage. Array.Sort has some important features. We can sort 2 arrays at once: one is used as the keys array, and a second is used as the values array.
Array First example. This program allocates an array of 4 integers. Next it calls the Array.Sort method. This sorts the elements in-place—we do not need to assign a variable.
Int ArrayWrite: We enumerate the integers in the sorted array, printing them to the console.
Console C# program that uses simple Array.Sort overload
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Simple sort call.
int[] values = { 4, 7, 2, 0 };
Array.Sort(values);
foreach (int value in values)
{
Console.Write(value);
Console.Write(' ');
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Output
0 2 4 7
Array reference. This program creates an array. Then it references the newly-created int array as an Array. We can do this because the int[] type is derived from the Array type.
Next: This Array reference is passed to the Array.Sort method, which can sort the elements.
And: Before program completion, we display the sorted elements in the Array reference.
C# program that uses Array reference type
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Sort Array reference.
int[] values = { 4, 7, 2, 0 };
Array array = values;
Array.Sort(array);
foreach (int value in array)
{
Console.Write(value);
Console.Write(' ');
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Output
0 2 4 7
Keys, values. We declare two arrays (keys and values) and set the elements in them. Next we call the Array.Sort overload that accepts two arrays.
Arguments: We call Array.Sort with 2 array arguments. The first is the keys array and the second, the values array.
Finally: The program prints out the keys array in its sorted order, and the values array in its sorted order.
C# program that sorts keys and values
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Sort keys and values.
int[] keys = { 4, 7, 2, 0 };
int[] values = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
Array.Sort(keys, values);
foreach (int key in keys)
{
Console.Write(key);
Console.Write(' ');
}
Console.WriteLine();
foreach (int value in values)
{
Console.Write(value);
Console.Write(' ');
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Output
0 2 4 7
4 3 1 2
Range example. This program creates an integer array upon the managed heap. Then, it calls the Array.Sort method with three arguments.
Arguments: These are the array reference (int[]), the starting index (0) and the number of elements to sort past that index.
Note: This program uses 0, 3 to sort only the first three elements. It sorts a range of elements.
Tip: You can see in the results that the first three elements are sorted in ascending numeric order.
And: The fourth element 0 is still at the end because it was not included in the sorting operation.
C# program that sorts range of elements
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Sort range of elements.
int[] values = { 4, 7, 2, 0 };
Array.Sort(values, 0, 3);
foreach (int value in values)
{
Console.Write(value);
Console.Write(' ');
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Output
2 4 7 0
A summary. Array.Sort has many overloads. We can modify the arguments to invoke the more sophisticated versions of the method. The List's Sort() method internally calls Array.Sort.
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