I have a complicated sort/grouping that needs to be performed with a list of objects.

The objects have three properties: EventName Start End

I'm given the name of an event "EventName" and the start/end times for said event, and populate a List.

Now comes the hard part.

The requirements are: - the same EventName can have multiple entries with different start/end times - events are to be sorted by start time, with the earliest occurring first - events, if they have the same start time, should then be sorted by shortest to longest run times. - events are then to be grouped, so all events with the same name are listed in ascending order, under the event name. - Events with different names, but the same overall earliest start time are to be sorted alphabetically.

For example:

List(0):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 10am End: 3pm

List(1):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 10am End: 11am

List(2):

EventName: Test 1 Start: 12pm End: 1pm

List(3):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 2pm End: 3pm

So when all is said and done, the List needs to be sorted to be:

List(0):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 10am End: 11am

List(1):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 10am End: 3pm

List(2):

EventName: Test 2 Start: 2pm End: 3pm

List(3):

EventName: Test 1 Start: 12pm End: 1pm

I'm really not sure how to do this. I have this much which doesn't work:

theList.OrderBy(o => o.Start).ThenBy(o => o.End).ThenBy(o => o.EventName);

Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT To make it easier, assume times are converted in 24-hour time and stored as ints as I can easily do that.

I believe I have it!

Just had to do some minor tweaks to what I already had.

Here's the code that thus far is working as I need it:

theList.GroupBy(o => o.EventName).Select(s => s.OrderBy(a => a.Start).ThenBy(a => a.End)).SelectMany(sm => sm).ToList();

Where all the other suggestions were falling down was keeping the EventNames grouped together when sorting by the start times.

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