ArrayList.Sort Method ()
Sorts the elements in the entire ArrayList.
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| NotSupportedException | The ArrayList is read-only. |
This method uses Array.Sort, which uses the QuickSort algorithm. The QuickSort algorithm is a comparison sort (also called an unstable sort), which means that a "less than or equal to" comparison operation determines which of two elements should occur first in the final sorted list. However, if two elements are equal, their original order might not be preserved. In contrast, a stable sort preserves the order of elements that are equal. To perform a stable sort, you must implement a custom IComparer interface to use with the other overloads of this method.
On average, this method is an O(n log n) operation, where n is Count; in the worst case it is an O(n^2) operation.
The following code example shows how to sort the values in an ArrayList.
Imports System Imports System.Collections Public Class SamplesArrayList Public Shared Sub Main() ' Creates and initializes a new ArrayList. Dim myAL As New ArrayList() myAL.Add("The") myAL.Add("quick") myAL.Add("brown") myAL.Add("fox") myAL.Add("jumps") myAL.Add("over") myAL.Add("the") myAL.Add("lazy") myAL.Add("dog") ' Displays the values of the ArrayList. Console.WriteLine("The ArrayList initially contains the following values:") PrintValues(myAL) ' Sorts the values of the ArrayList. myAL.Sort() ' Displays the values of the ArrayList. Console.WriteLine("After sorting:") PrintValues(myAL) End Sub 'Main Public Shared Sub PrintValues(myList As IEnumerable) Dim obj As [Object] For Each obj In myList Console.WriteLine(" {0}", obj) Next obj Console.WriteLine() End Sub 'PrintValues End Class 'SamplesArrayList ' This code produces the following output. ' ' The ArrayList initially contains the following values: ' The ' quick ' brown ' fox ' jumps ' over ' the ' lazy ' dog ' ' After sorting: ' brown ' dog ' fox ' jumps ' lazy ' over ' quick ' the ' The
Available since 10
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1