c# - Sort a list by a custom order

Question

I have an array of some types

private string[] linkTypes = {
    "dog",
    "cat",
    // and so on ..
};

Yes, I could use an enum but in this case it has to be an array of strings.

So now I have a List of objects called "LinkElement"

private List<LinkElement> links = new List<LinkElement>();

and these objects have a string property called "Type"

string linkType = links[index].Type;

If linkTypes contains the elements "dog" and "cat", my links can only have "dog" or "cat" as their type.

I want to sort the list "links" by the order of linkTypes.

Means the lists order contains the links with having the type "dog" first and after that the links with the type "cat" come up.

List<LinkElement> sortedLinks = ; // sort links

for (int i = 0; i < sortedLinks.Count; i++)
{
    LinkElement currentLink = sortedLinks[i];
    Console.WriteLine(currentLink.Type);
}

// Write down dogs first, cats after

Can someone help me out?

Answer 1

Assuming linkTypes (the private string array) is in the same class as links (the list of LinkElement), you can use LINQ's OrderBy with a simple lambda expression:

var sortedLinks = links.OrderBy(le => Array.IndexOf(linkTypes, le.linkType)).ToList()