Alphabetically sort a generic list of objects using a specified property

Question

I am writing an address book program. I have each person's details stored in a List<Person>. I need to be able to sort this list by last name (using first name if there are ties) or by post code.

So far I have this:

public class Person
{
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string PostCode { get; set; }
    // etc..
}

public class AddressBook
{
    public List<Person> People { get; set; }

    // asc: ascending or descending
    // column: the property to use when sorting
    //         (in my case either LastName or Postcode)
    public void Sort(bool asc, string column)
    {
        // What should I put here?
    }

    // etc...
}

I have tried using the ICompare and IComparable interfaces but I am just not getting it.

How do I write the Sort method?

Answer 1

Assuming:

 List<Person> personList;

then with Linq:

 IEnumerable<Person> orderedByLastName = personList.OrderBy(p => p.LastName)