Swap two items in List T

Question

Is there a LINQ way to swap the position of two items inside a list lt T gt

User · Answer

If order matters  you should keep a property on the  T  objects in your list that denotes sequence   In order to swap them  just swap the value of that property  and then use that in the  Sort comparison with sequence property

User · Answer

There is no existing Swap-method  so you have to create one yourself  Of course you can linqify it  but that has to be done with one  unwritten   rules in mind  LINQ-operations do not change the input parameters   In the other  linqify  answers  the  input  list is modified and returned  but this action brakes that rule  If would be weird if you have a list with unsorted items  do a LINQ  OrderBy -operation and than discover that the input list is also sorted  just like the result   This is not allowed to happen   So    how do we do this   My first thought was just to restore the collection after it was finished iterating  But this is a dirty solution  so do not use it   static public IEnumerable lt T gt  Swap1 lt T gt  this IList lt T gt  source  int index1  int index2           Parameter checking is skipped in this example          Swap the items      T temp   source index1       source index1    source index2       source index2    temp          Return the items in the new order      foreach  T item in source          yield return item          Restore the collection      source index2    source index1       source index1    temp      This solution is dirty because it does modify the input list  even if it restores it to the original state  This could cause several problems    The list could be readonly which will throw an exception   If the list is shared by multiple threads  the list will change for the other threads during the duration of this function  If an exception occurs during the iteration  the list will not be restored   This could be resolved to write an try-finally inside the Swap-function  and put the restore-code inside the finally-block     There is a better  and shorter  solution  just make a copy of the original list   This also makes it possible to use an IEnumerable as a parameter  instead of an IList    static public IEnumerable lt T gt  Swap2 lt T gt  this IList lt T gt  source  int index1  int index2           Parameter checking is skipped in this example          If nothing needs to be swapped  just return the original collection      if  index1    index2          return source          Make a copy      List lt T gt  copy   source ToList            Swap the items      T temp   copy index1       copy index1    copy index2       copy index2    temp          Return the copy with the swapped items      return copy      One disadvantage of this solution is that it copies the entire list which will consume memory and that makes the solution rather slow    You might consider the following solution   static public IEnumerable lt T gt  Swap3 lt T gt  this IList lt T gt  source  int index1  int index2           Parameter checking is skipped in this example         It is assumed that index1  lt  index2  Otherwise a check should be build in and both indexes should be swapped       using  IEnumerator lt T gt  e   source GetEnumerator                     Iterate to the first index          for  int i   0  i  lt  index1  i                yield return source i               Return the item at the second index          yield return source index2            if  index1    index2                           Return the items between the first and second index              for  int i   index1   1  i  lt  index2  i                    yield return source i                   Return the item at the first index              yield return source index1                         Return the remaining items          for  int i   index2   1  i  lt  source Count  i                yield return source i             And if you want to input parameter to be IEnumerable   static public IEnumerable lt T gt  Swap4 lt T gt  this IEnumerable lt T gt  source  int index1  int index2           Parameter checking is skipped in this example         It is assumed that index1  lt  index2  Otherwise a check should be build in and both indexes should be swapped       using IEnumerator lt T gt  e   source GetEnumerator                     Iterate to the first index          for int i   0  i  lt  index1  i                           if   e MoveNext                    yield break              yield return e Current                     if  index1    index2                           Remember the item at the first position              if   e MoveNext                    yield break              T rememberedItem   e Current                  Store the items between the first and second index in a temporary list               List lt T gt  subset   new List lt T gt  index2 - index1 - 1               for  int i   index1   1  i  lt  index2  i                                  if   e MoveNext                        break                  subset Add e Current                                 Return the item at the second index              if  e MoveNext                    yield return e Current                  Return the items in the subset              foreach  T item in subset                  yield return item                  Return the first  remembered  item              yield return rememberedItem                        Return the remaining items in the list          while  e MoveNext                yield return e Current            Swap4 also makes a copy of  a subset of  the source  So worst case scenario  it is as slow and memory consuming as function Swap2

User · Answer

Maybe someone will think of a clever way to do this  but you shouldn t  Swapping two items in a list is inherently side-effect laden but LINQ operations should be side-effect free  Thus  just use a simple extension method   static class IListExtensions       public static void Swap lt T gt           this IList lt T gt  list          int firstIndex          int secondIndex                 Contract Requires list    null           Contract Requires firstIndex  gt   0  amp  amp  firstIndex  lt  list Count           Contract Requires secondIndex  gt   0  amp  amp  secondIndex  lt  list Count           if  firstIndex    secondIndex                return                    T temp   list firstIndex           list firstIndex    list secondIndex           list secondIndex    temp

User · Answer

List lt T gt  has a Reverse   method  however it only reverses the order of two  or more  consecutive items  your list Reverse index  2    Where the second parameter 2 indicates we are reversing the order of 2 items  starting with the item at the given index  Source  https   msdn microsoft com en-us library hf2ay11y v vs 110  aspx

User · Answer

Check the answer from Marc from C   Good best implementation of Swap method   public static void Swap lt T gt  IList lt T gt  list  int indexA  int indexB        T tmp   list indexA       list indexA    list indexB       list indexB    tmp      which can be linq-i-fied like  public static IList lt T gt  Swap lt T gt  this IList lt T gt  list  int indexA  int indexB        T tmp   list indexA       list indexA    list indexB       list indexB    tmp      return list        var lst   new List lt int gt      8  3  2  4    lst   lst Swap 1  2

[c#] Swap two items in List<T>

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