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orderby clause (C# Reference)

In a query expression, the orderby clause sorts the returned sequence or subsequence (group) in either ascending or descending order. You can specify multiple keys to perform one or more secondary sort operations. The default comparer for the type of the element performs the sorting. The default sort order is ascending. You can also specify a custom comparer, but you can only provide it by using method-based syntax. For more information, see Sorting Data.

The C# language reference documents the most recently released version of the C# language. It also contains initial documentation for features in public previews for the upcoming language release.

The documentation identifies any feature first introduced in the last three versions of the language or in current public previews.

Tip

To find when a feature was first introduced in C#, consult the article on the C# language version history.

In the following example, the first query sorts the words in alphabetical order starting from A, and second query sorts the same words in descending order. (The ascending keyword is the default sort value and can be omitted.)

class OrderbySample1
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create a delicious data source.
        string[] fruits = ["cherry", "apple", "blueberry"];

        // Query for ascending sort.
        IEnumerable<string> sortAscendingQuery =
            from fruit in fruits
            orderby fruit //"ascending" is default
            select fruit;

        // Query for descending sort.
        IEnumerable<string> sortDescendingQuery =
            from w in fruits
            orderby w descending
            select w;

        // Execute the query.
        Console.WriteLine("Ascending:");
        foreach (string s in sortAscendingQuery)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(s);
        }

        // Execute the query.
        Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine + "Descending:");
        foreach (string s in sortDescendingQuery)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(s);
        }
    }
}
/* Output:
Ascending:
apple
blueberry
cherry

Descending:
cherry
blueberry
apple
*/

The following example performs a primary sort on the students' last names, and then a secondary sort on their first names.

class OrderbySample2
{
    // The element type of the data source.
    public class Student
    {
        public required string First { get; init; }
        public required string Last { get; init; }
        public int ID { get; set; }
    }

    public static List<Student> GetStudents()
    {
        // Use a collection initializer to create the data source. Note that each element
        //  in the list contains an inner sequence of scores.
        List<Student> students = new List<Student>
        {
           new Student {First="Svetlana", Last="Omelchenko", ID=111},
           new Student {First="Claire", Last="O'Donnell", ID=112},
           new Student {First="Sven", Last="Mortensen", ID=113},
           new Student {First="Cesar", Last="Garcia", ID=114},
           new Student {First="Debra", Last="Garcia", ID=115}
        };

        return students;
    }
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Create the data source.
        List<Student> students = GetStudents();

        // Create the query.
        IEnumerable<Student> sortedStudents =
            from student in students
            orderby student.Last ascending, student.First ascending
            select student;

        // Execute the query.
        Console.WriteLine("sortedStudents:");
        foreach (Student student in sortedStudents)
            Console.WriteLine(student.Last + " " + student.First);

        // Now create groups and sort the groups. The query first sorts the names
        // of all students so that they will be in alphabetical order after they are
        // grouped. The second orderby sorts the group keys in alpha order.
        var sortedGroups =
            from student in students
            orderby student.Last, student.First
            group student by student.Last[0] into newGroup
            orderby newGroup.Key
            select newGroup;

        // Execute the query.
        Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine + "sortedGroups:");
        foreach (var studentGroup in sortedGroups)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(studentGroup.Key);
            foreach (var student in studentGroup)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("   {0}, {1}", student.Last, student.First);
            }
        }
    }
}
/* Output:
sortedStudents:
Garcia Cesar
Garcia Debra
Mortensen Sven
O'Donnell Claire
Omelchenko Svetlana

sortedGroups:
G
   Garcia, Cesar
   Garcia, Debra
M
   Mortensen, Sven
O
   O'Donnell, Claire
   Omelchenko, Svetlana
*/

At compile time, the orderby clause translates to a call to the OrderBy method. Multiple keys in the orderby clause translate to ThenBy method calls.

See also

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