Problem in use of SortDescription in WPF - int and string are not IComparable?

Question

I have a problem in using SortDescription. I've found some thread about the problem, like if you want to sort by a type that doesn't implement IComparable, like a user defined class, but it's not my case.

I have a class, that has two properties: string ID, and int Value. Let's call it Item! And I have a view:

<UserControl> <!-- ... -->
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition/>
            <RowDefinition/>
            <RowDefinition/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <Button Click="Button_Click"
                Content="Sort by ID"
                Grid.Row="0"/>
        <Button Click="Button_Click1"
                Content="Sort by Value"
                Grid.Row="1"/>
        <DockPanel Grid.Row="2">
            <ItemsControl x:Name="mItemsControl"
                          ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"><!-- The type of Items is ObservableCollection<Item> -->
                <!-- ... -->
            </ItemsControl>
        </DockPanel>
    </Grid>
</GroupBox>

EventHandlers are like these:

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        mItemsControl.Items.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("ID", ListSortDirection.Ascending); //Exception here
    }
private void Button_Click1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        mItemsControl.Items.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription("Value", ListSortDirection.Ascending); //...and here as well
    }

I get InvalidOperationException because it "Failed to compare two elements in the array.", and it is because neither of the elements implement IComparable. And that is, what I can't understand, as I can compare ints, as well as strings.

Thanks for any idea!

Answer 1

This works fine for me so you are doing something wrong in other parts of your code. Compare what you do with below sample.

XAML:

<Window x:Class="SortDemo.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="300">
    <StackPanel>
        <Button Click="OnSort" Content="Sort by ID" Tag="ID"/>
        <Button Click="OnSort" Content="Sort by Value" Tag="Value"/>
        <ItemsControl Name="_itemsControl" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Items}" />
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

Code behind:

using System;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows;

namespace SortDemo
{
    public partial class Window1 : Window
    {
        public Window1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            Items = new ObservableCollection<Item>();
            Items.Add(new Item() { ID = "AAA", Value = 2 });
            Items.Add(new Item() { ID = "BBB", Value = 1 });

            DataContext = this;
        }

        public ObservableCollection<Item> Items { get; private set; }

        private void OnSort(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            string sortProperty = (sender as FrameworkElement).Tag as string;
            _itemsControl.Items.SortDescriptions.Clear();
            _itemsControl.Items.SortDescriptions.Add(new SortDescription(sortProperty, ListSortDirection.Ascending)); 
        }
    }

    public class Item
    {
        public string ID { get; set;}
        public int Value { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return ID + " " + Value;
        }
    }
}