can't pass default comparer as IComparer<object>

Question

I'm trying to call a "Sort" method that expects a parameter of type IComparer<object>, using the code:

collection.Sort((IComparer<object>)Comparer<DateTime>.Default)

It builds but at run time I get an InvalidCastException with the message:

Unable to cast object of type
'System.Collections.Generic.GenericComparer`1[System.DateTime]'
to type 'System.Collections.Generic.IComparer`1[System.Object]'.

Now what?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, you need to have a comparer of the appropriate type.

You could make a custom IComparer<object> class that just wrapped the DateTime comparer, but there is no way to do this directly via a cast.

If your collection always contains DateTime objects, then you can just do:

ICollection<DateTime> collection = ...;
collection.Sort(Comparer<DateTime>.Default); // or just collection.Sort()

---

Edit after reading the comment:

If you're working with an ICollection directly, you may want to use the LINQ option to do:

collection.Cast<DateTime>().OrderBy( date => date );

If you're working with something that implements IList<T>, (such as List<DateTime>) you can just call Sort() on the list itself.

---

Since you're using a non-standard class, you'll need to make your own comparer:

class Comparer : IComparer<object> {
    int Compare(object a, object b) {
         return DateTime.Compare((DateTime)a, (DateTime)b);
    }
}

You can then call:

collection.Sort(new Comparer() );

Answer 2

Just try to remove the cast and let the compiler to chose IComparer instead of IComparer<T>.

Comparer<T> implements both IComparer<T> and IComparer so it should work.

This works just fine:

ArrayList collection = new ArrayList {DateTime.Now.AddDays(1), DateTime.Now};
collection.Sort(Comparer<DateTime>.Default);

Answer 3

If you can change the type of the collection object (i.e. to an ArrayList from a List<object>), then you can just use the non-generic IComparer interface (which Comparer<DateTime>.Default implements).

If you can't change the type of the collection object, then you are out of luck. (You could always implement an object that implements IComparer<object>, like so:

 public class DateTimeComparer : IComparer<object>
    {       
        public int Compare(object x, object y)
        {
            IComparer myComparer = Comparer<DateTime>.Default as IComparer;
            return myComparer.Compare(x, y);
        }     
    }

(This will throw an exception if you have any non-DateTime items in your collection though)

EDIT:

You could also implement something a little bit more type safe, i.e.:

  public class DateTimeComparer : IComparer<object>
    {       
        public int Compare(object x, object y)
        {
            if ( x is DateTime && y is DateTime )
            {
                return Comparer<DateTime>.Default.Compare((DateTime) x, (DateTime) y);
            }
            else
            {
                // handle the type mismatch
            }
        }     
    }

Answer 4

You can define an extension function like this:

public static class ComparerConversion
    {
     private class ComparerWrapper<T> : IComparer<object>
     {
      private readonly IComparer<T> comparer;

      public ComparerWrapper(IComparer<T> comparer)
      {
       this.comparer = comparer;
      }

      public int Compare(object x, object y)
      {
       return this.comparer.Compare((T)x, (T)y);
      }
     }

     public static IComparer<object> ToObjectComparer<T>(this IComparer<T> comparer)
     {
      return new ComparerWrapper<T>(comparer);
     }
    }

and use it like this:

List<object> collection = new List<object> { DateTime.Now.AddDays(1), DateTime.Now };
collection.Sort(Comparer<DateTime>.Default.ToObjectComparer());

Answer 5

If all you want is the default comparison, this will work:

collection.Sort(Comparer<object>.Default)

Comparer.Default uses your objects' inherent comparison semantics (i.e., IComparable.CompareTo).