Microsoft Visual Studio / Active Reports 6 – How to sort your collections using IComparer

Put this class in your solution. Change ‘[object name of your collection]’ to be the name of your object that defines your collection.

Public Class SimpleComparer
Implements IComparer(Of [object name of your collection])

    Private _propertyToSort As String
    Private _sortOrder As System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder = System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending

    Public Sub New(ByVal propertyToSort As String, ByVal sortOrder As System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder)
        MyBase.new()
        _sortOrder = sortOrder
        _propertyToSort = propertyToSort
    End Sub

    Public Property SortOrder() As System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder
        Get
            Return _sortOrder
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder)
            _sortOrder = Value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Property PropertyToSort() As String
        Get
            Return _propertyToSort
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            _propertyToSort = Value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Function Compare(ByVal x As[object name of your collection], ByVal y As [object name of your collection]) As Integer Implements System.Collections.Generic.IComparer(Of[object name of your collection]).Compare
        Dim prop As Reflection.PropertyInfo = x.GetType.GetProperty(Me.PropertyToSort)

        If Me.SortOrder = System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.None OrElse prop.GetValue(x, Nothing) = _
        prop.GetValue(y, Nothing) Then
            Return 0
        Else
            If prop.GetValue(x, Nothing) > prop.GetValue(y, Nothing) Then
                If Me.SortOrder = System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending Then
                    Return 1
                Else
                    Return -1
                End If
            Else
                If Me.SortOrder = System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending Then
                    Return -1
                Else
                    Return 1
                End If
            End If
        End If
    End Function
End Class

Call your IComparer class with your collection as follows. Replace [property of your object within the collection to sort on] with the property name to sort. You can also choose Ascending or Descending to sort by.

[your collection].Sort(New SimpleComparer(“[property of your object within the collection to sort on]”, System.Windows.Forms.SortOrder.Ascending))