Object.CompareTo(Object) for unknown data type

Question

I am trying to compare objects in an object[] that are of a single type (unknown at runtime). They are of System.string, int, decimal, Datetime, or bool types.

Is there a way to compare two of these objects to determine if one is greater or less than another without having to cast them into their appropriate type first?

Answer 1

The types in question all implement IComparable, so, if being able to compare elements is an intrinsic requirement of your array, you could declare it as an IComparable[] instead.

Answer 2

All of those types implement IComparable interface, so you can cast your objects to IComparable (or just keep an IComparable[] array instead of object[]). Then you can use CompareTo(object x) method.

Answer 3

All of the types you mention implements IComparable, so you can use IComparable.CompareTo. As an example:

object[] ints = new object[] { 2, 1, 3};
object n = 2;
var compareResults = ints.OfType<IComparable>().Select(c => c.CompareTo(n));