Custom OrderBy on a List<T>

Question

I'm trying to figure out the best way to custom sort a List. Lets say that T is a Object with a date(DateTime?) property and a status(string) property.

I have 3 cases...

"Urgent": I want these at the top of the list, no particular order
date = null
status = "Urgent"

"Normal": I want these ordered by date after the Urgent cases
date = any valid date/time
status = "On Time"

"Later": I want these at the bottom of the list, no particular order
date = null
status = "Later"

Any thoughts? Should I use an IQuerable object instead of List? I can always .ToList() the object later to send to my view.

Answer 1

query = query.OrderBy(x =>   x.Status == "Urgent" ? 1:   x.Status == "Normal" ? 2:   3)   .ThenBy(x =>    x.Status == "Urgent" ? null:   x.Status == "Normal" ? x.Date:   null); 

Random musing: Does Ordering belong to the query, or to the class?

Answer 2

Shouldn't be too difficult, just make T implement IComparable using your comparison rules and you should be set.