How to do Custom Sorting for a Specified String Column

3 Jan 20202 minutes to read

You can customize the sorting and set the rows with an empty string to the last. This can be done by making use of the Compare method of IComparer Class. You can write your custom code for the Compare() method where you can set the empty string rows as last. This can be achieved by finding the length of the string in the compare() method and canceling its sorting thereby pushing the empty strings at the last.

Here is the code for implementing the string length compare method.

C#

public int Compare(object x, object y)
{
  if(x == null && y == null)
  return 0;

//Does not include empty strings for comparison.
  else if(x == System.DBNull.Value)
  {
      return 0;
  }
  else if(y == System.DBNull.Value)
  {
      return 0;

  }
  else
  {
       return ((IComparable) x.ToString()).CompareTo(y.ToString());
  }

}
SortColumnDescriptor sortColumnDescriptor = new Syncfusion.Grouping.SortColumnDescriptor();
this.gridGroupingControl1.TableDescriptor.SortedColumns.Add(sortColumnDescriptor);
sortColumnDescriptor.SortDirection = System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Descending;
sortColumnDescriptor.Comparer = new StrLenComparer();

VB.NET

Public Function Compare(ByVal x As Object, ByVal y As Object) As Integer
    If x Is Nothing AndAlso y Is Nothing Then
       Return 0

'Does not include empty strings for comparison.
    Else If x Is System.DBNull.Value Then
       Return 0
    Else If y Is System.DBNull.Value Then
       Return 0
    Else
       Return (CType(x.ToString(), IComparable)).CompareTo(y.ToString())
    End If
End Function
Private sortColumnDescriptor As SortColumnDescriptor = New Syncfusion.Grouping.SortColumnDescriptor()
Me.gridGroupingControl1.TableDescriptor.SortedColumns.Add(sortColumnDescriptor)
Private sortColumnDescriptor.SortDirection = System.ComponentModel.ListSortDirection.Descending
Private sortColumnDescriptor.Comparer = New StrLenComparer()