Sorting rows in a data table

Question

We have two columns in a DataTable, like so:

COL1   COL2
Abc    5
Def    8
Ghi    3

We're trying to sort this datatable based on COL2 in decreasing order.

COL1            COL2
ghi             8
abc             4
def             3
jkl             1

We tried this:

ft.DefaultView.Sort = "COL2 desc";
ft = ft.DefaultView.ToTable(true);

but, without using a DataView, we want to sort the DataTable itself, not the DataView.

Solution 1

I'm afraid you can't easily do an in-place sort of a DataTable like it sounds like you want to do.

What you can do is create a new DataTable from a DataView that you create from your original DataTable. Apply whatever sorts and/or filters you want on the DataView and then create a new DataTable from the DataView using the DataView.ToTable method:

   DataView dv = ft.DefaultView;
   dv.Sort = "occr desc";
   DataTable sortedDT = dv.ToTable();

Solution 2

This will help you...

DataTable dt = new DataTable();         
dt.DefaultView.Sort = "Column_name desc";
dt = dt.DefaultView.ToTable();

Solution 3

Its Simple Use .Select function.

DataRow[] foundRows=table.Select("Date = '1/31/1979' or OrderID = 2", "CompanyName ASC");
DataTable dt = foundRows.CopyToDataTable();

And it's done......Happy Coding

Solution 4

Maybe the following can help:

DataRow[] dataRows = table.Select().OrderBy(u => u["EmailId"]).ToArray();

Here, you can use other Lambda expression queries too.

Solution 5

Did you try using the Select(filterExpression, sortOrder) method on DataTable? See here for an example. Note this method will not sort the data table in place, if that is what you are looking for, but it will return a sorted array of rows without using a data view.

View more solutions

Comments

[Gustavo Mori]

@vidyasagar No problem. Also, for future reference, if an answer is valuable, you should vote it up (example, mine?). And if an answer is "THE" answer, you should mark it as the answer (example, Jay's).

[Ranjith Kumar Nagiri]

i want the value ascending in terms of price value which is decimal. how to do it?

[Steam]

This approach seems fine. But is there no direct way of doing it ? Why don't they have a DataTable.sort("by") ?

[WSBT]

Thanks. It's worth noting that, "occr desc" here, "occr" is the column name, "desc" means "descending".

[ivg]

Vidya wants to sort his table by occr in desc order. Which the simple code above does. It does exactly what Jay Riggs (accepted answer) showed except this is done in one line of code.

[ΩmegaMan]

The suggestion was to better the post; in the future place that information about the code into the response. For it betters the chance of someone upvoting the post or even selecting it as the answer.

[marbel82]

1) You must create new table DataTable sortedDT = new DataTable(). 2) You need to use ImportRow (you can't add row from different table)

[Sai]

This worked for me dataTable.DefaultView.Sort = "Col1, Col2, Col3". Little clean code.

[مسعود]

It works for sorting but If I want to replace my original table with the sorted one what should I do. So that when I access this table the second time it is still sorted.

[Jonny]

Just like @Sai, you can modify the DataTable.DefaultView.Sort directly. No need to "break out" the view and recreate a table.

[Johnny Bones]

@Sai is the MAN! That little line of code just saved my sanity!

[Aleksei]

Thanks for the answer. Your way #1 helped in my case: I got a very special IComparer defined, so to use it I did something like this: DataRow[] rows = dt.Rows.Cast<DataRow>().OrderBy(row => row.Field<string>("FIELD_NAME"), MyCustomComparer.Instance).ToArray();

[Drew Chapin]

Great minds think alike. I was about to post the same solution after reading @JayR's.

[Thameem]

for Column_name cuz i was confused what was occr in Jay Riggs's solution :)

[Subarata Talukder]

It works fine for me. If you need more benefit then you may initialize data to a session variable: "Session["nameTable"] = yourDataTable" and then use: "DataTable dt = (DataTable)Session["nameTable"]". Finally use above sorting code using "dt" DataTable instance. Thanks

[Tawab Wakil]

Note that if, like OP, you are only interested in the sorting aspect of this and don't want to filter the results, you can specify it like this: Select("", "CompanyName ASC").

[M. Fawad Surosh]

Wonderful and easy solution :)

[ZF007]

add context so we can learn and to prevent down-voting or removal of question. EoR.

[kenmtb]

This is a fantastic answer. Allows the use of dynamically generated text strings for filtering and sorting! Glad I found this answer!