C# - Sorting a List of Complex Objects with Conditional Logic scenarios on Edge Cases
I'm trying to configure I've searched everywhere and can't find a clear answer... I'm trying to sort a list of `Person` objects in C#, where each `Person` has a `Name`, `Age`, and `MembershipStatus`. The sorting should be primarily by `MembershipStatus`, then by `Age` (descending), and finally by `Name` (alphabetically). However, I'm working with unexpected behavior when two `Person` objects have the same `MembershipStatus` and `Age`, resulting in an inconsistent order based on their names. Here's the relevant code I have: ```csharp public class Person { public string Name { get; set; } public int Age { get; set; } public string MembershipStatus { get; set; } } var people = new List<Person> { new Person { Name = "Alice", Age = 30, MembershipStatus = "Gold" }, new Person { Name = "Bob", Age = 25, MembershipStatus = "Silver" }, new Person { Name = "Charlie", Age = 30, MembershipStatus = "Gold" }, new Person { Name = "David", Age = 25, MembershipStatus = "Gold" } }; var sortedPeople = people.OrderBy(p => p.MembershipStatus) .ThenByDescending(p => p.Age) .ThenBy(p => p.Name) .ToList(); ``` The output I get is inconsistent on each run. For example, the two `Gold` members of age `30` sometimes appear in different orders. After some debugging, I realized that `OrderBy` and `ThenBy` do not guarantee stability if the sorting keys are equal, which seems to be the root of the scenario. Using .NET 6, I was hoping to leverage `IComparer<Person>` to enforce a more predictable sorting mechanism. I tried implementing a custom comparer: ```csharp public class PersonComparer : IComparer<Person> { public int Compare(Person x, Person y) { int membershipComparison = string.Compare(x.MembershipStatus, y.MembershipStatus); if (membershipComparison != 0) return membershipComparison; int ageComparison = y.Age.CompareTo(x.Age); if (ageComparison != 0) return ageComparison; return string.Compare(x.Name, y.Name); } } ``` And then used it like this: ```csharp var sortedPeople = people.OrderBy(p => p, new PersonComparer()).ToList(); ``` This seems to fix the inconsistency, but I'm uncertain if this is the best practice for achieving stable sorts in this case. Is there a more efficient or conventional way to ensure stable sorting while using LINQ in C#? Any insights would be greatly appreciated! Cheers for any assistance! I'm working in a Ubuntu 20.04 environment. What am I doing wrong?