SortedList In C#

A C# SortedList class represents a collection of key/value pairs that are sorted by the keys and are accessible by key and by index. The SortedListvclass is included in the System.Collection namespace. 

A SortedList object internally manages two arrays to store the elements of the list; that is, one array for the keys and another array for values. Each element is a key/value pair that can be accessed as a DictionaryEntry object. A key cannot be null but a value can be.

SortedList has 6 different types of constructor like SortedList(), SortedList(IComparer), etc.

In the SortedList index, the sequence is based on the sort sequence. When an element is added, it is inserted into SortedList in the correct sort order, and the indexing adjusts accordingly.

When an element is removed, the indexing also adjusts accordingly. Therefore, the index of a specific key/value pair might change as elements are added or removed from the SortedList object.

Elements in this collection can be accessed using an integer index. Indexes in this collection are zero-based.

The foreach statement of the C# language returns an object of the type of elements in the collection. Since each element of the SortedList object is a key/value pair, the element type is not the type of the key or the type of the value. Rather, the element type is DictionaryEntry.

C# SortedList Properties

Keys	Gets the keys contained in the SortedList object.
Values	Gets the keys contained in the theSortedList object.
Item[Object]	Gets or sets the value associated with a specific key in a SortedList object.(object=key)
Capacity	Gets or sets the capacity of a SortedList object.
Count	Gets the number of elements contained in a SortedList object.
IsFixedSize	Gets bool value the SortedList is fixed size.
IsReadOnly	Gets a value indicating whether a SortedList object is read-only.

C# SortedList Methods

Add(Object, Object)	Adds an element with the specified key and value to a SortedList object.
Clone()	Creates a shallow copy of a SortedList object.
Contains(Object)	Return bool value, Determines whether the SortedList contains a specific key.
ContainsKey(Object)	Return bool value, Determines whether the SortedList contains a specific key.
ContainsValue(Object)	Return bool value, Determines whether the SortedList contains a specific value.
IndexOfKey(Object)	Returns the zero-based index of the specified key in a SortedList object.
IndexOfValue(Object)	Returns the zero-based index of the first occurrence of the specified value in a SortedListobject.

Example 1

The following code snippet creates a SortedList. where the key type is int and value type is a string.

SortedList NumberSortedList = new SortedList();
//The following code snippet adds items(unordered) to the SortedList.
NumberSortedList.Add(4, "Four");
NumberSortedList.Add(1, "One");
NumberSortedList.Add(3, "Three");
NumberSortedList.Add(7, "Seven");
NumberSortedList.Add(5, "Five");
NumberSortedList.Add(6, "Six");
NumberSortedList.Add(2, "Two");
Console.WriteLine("--Number SortedList(sorted by the keys)--");
//The SortedList is a collection. We can use the foreach loop to go through all the items and read them using they Key and Value properties.
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in NumberSortedList)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Key: {item.Key}, Value: {item.Value}");
}

Output

Example 2

The following code snippet creates a SortedList where the value type is List<string>.

SortedList ContryNameSortedList = new SortedList();
//The following code snippet creates a list where collection of contry name alphabet wise
List<string> ContryNameStartWith_A = new List<string> { "Afghanistan", "Albania", "Algeria", "Andorra" };
List<string> ContryNameStartWith_B = new List<string> { "Bahamas", "Bahrain", "Bangladesh", "Barbados" };
List<string> ContryNameStartWith_C = new List<string> { "Cambodia", "Cameroon", "Canada", "Cape Verde" };
List<string> ContryNameStartWith_D = new List<string> { "Denmark", "Djibouti", "Dominica", "Dominican Republic" };
List<string> ContryNameStartWith_E = new List<string> { "Egypt", "Ecuador", "Equatorial Guinea", "East Timor" };
// The following code snippet adds items(unordered) to the SortedList.
ContryNameSortedList.Add('A', ContryNameStartWith_A);
ContryNameSortedList.Add('D', ContryNameStartWith_D);
ContryNameSortedList.Add('C', ContryNameStartWith_C);
ContryNameSortedList.Add('B', ContryNameStartWith_B);
ContryNameSortedList.Add('E', ContryNameStartWith_E);
Console.WriteLine("--Alphabet Wise Country Name--");
//The Hashtable is a collection. We can use the foreach loop to go through all the items and read them using they Key and Value properties.
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in ContryNameSortedList)
{
List<string> countrysName = ContryNameSortedList[item.Key] as List<string>;
Console.WriteLine($"Alphabet: {item.Key}, --> Contry Name: {string.Join(", ", countrysName)}");
}

Output

SortedList Clone() Example

The following code snippet creates a cloneSortedList clone of NumberSortedList SortedList.

SortedList cloneSortedList = NumberSortedList.Clone() as SortedList;
cloneSortedList = NumberSortedList.Clone() as SortedList;
Console.WriteLine("--Example of Clone SortedList--");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Number SortedList--");
Console.WriteLine("");
//The SortedList is a collection. We can use the foreach loop to go through all the items and read them using they Key and Value properties.
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in NumberSortedList)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Key: {item.Key}, Value: {item.Value}");
}
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Clone Number SortedList--");
Console.WriteLine("");
//The SortedList is a collection. We can use the foreach loop to go through all the items and read them using they Key and Value properties.
foreach (DictionaryEntry item in cloneSortedList)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Key: {item.Key}, Value: {item.Value}");
}

Output

Example of Contains(), ContainsKey() and ContainsValue()

The following code snippet show how to use Contains(), ContainsKey() and ContainsValue() with SortedList.

Console.WriteLine("--Example of Contains()--");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"Is the key '1' present in NumberSortedList?: {NumberSortedList.Contains(1)}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of ContainsKey()--");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"Is the key '1' present in NumberSortedList?: {NumberSortedList.ContainsKey(1)}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is the key '10' present in NumberSortedList?: {NumberSortedList.ContainsKey(10)}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of ContainsValue()--");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"Is the value 'Ten' present in NumberSortedList?: {NumberSortedList.ContainsValue("Ten")}");
Console.WriteLine($"Is the value 'One' present in NumberSortedList?: {NumberSortedList.ContainsValue("One")}");

Output

Example of Capacity, IsFixedSize, IsReadOnly Property And IndexOfKey(), IndexOfValue() Method

The following code snippet show how to use Capacity, IsFixedSize, IsReadOnly Property And IndexOfKey(), IndexOfValue() with SortedList.

Console.WriteLine("--Example of Capacity Property --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"Capacity of a NumberSortedList : {NumberSortedList.Capacity}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of IsFixedSize Property --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"NumberSortedList has a fixed size : {NumberSortedList.IsFixedSize}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of IsReadOnly Property --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"NumberSortedList is read-only. : {NumberSortedList.IsReadOnly}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of IndexOfKey Method --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"'IndexOfKey(5)' Returns the index of the '5'(Key) : {NumberSortedList.IndexOfKey(5)}");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine("--Example of IndexOfValue Method --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"IndexOfValue(\"Six\") Returns the index of the \"Six\"(Value) : {NumberSortedList.IndexOfValue("Six")}");

Output

Example of Synchronized Packing

The following code snippet shows how to use Synchronized with SortedList.

SortedList synchronizedNumberSortedList = SortedList.Synchronized(NumberSortedList);
Console.WriteLine("--Example of IsSynchronized Property --");
Console.WriteLine("");
// print the status of both SortedList
Console.WriteLine("NumberSortedList SortedList is {0}.", NumberSortedList.IsSynchronized ? "synchronized" :"not synchronized");
Console.WriteLine("synchronizedNumberSortedList SortedList is {0}." ,synchronizedNumberSortedList.IsSynchronized ? "synchronized" : "not synchronized");

Output

SortedList Clear() Method & Count Property Example

The following code snippet shows how to use Clear() Method & Count Property with SortedList.

Console.WriteLine("--Example of Clear() Method & Count Property --");
Console.WriteLine("");
Console.WriteLine($"Before 'NumberSortedList.Clear()' Number of items in NumberSortedList= {NumberSortedList.Count}");
NumberSortedList.Clear();
Console.WriteLine($"After 'NumberSortedList.Clear()' Number of items in NumberSortedList= {NumberSortedList.Count}");

Output

6 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Amit Mohanty7y ago
Nice article
- Rohan Mistry7y ago
  Thank you :-)
Ano Mepani7y ago
Nice article. Very well detailed example for sortedlist
- Rohan Mistry7y ago
  Thank you :-)
Rajanikant Hawaldar7y ago
nice article, instead of Console.WriteLine("") use \n
- Rohan Mistry7y ago
  Thank you, Next time i will take care about Console.WriteLine("") use \n. Thanks for suggestion.