Methods with "unknow" data types...

[Krstevski]

Hello ppl... Can someone show me how to make a method with "unknown" data type ?

I want to create one function for sorting array with different data type...
(I know for .NET library but I want to create custom library...)

For example:

public class Sort
    {
        // THis function is only for int[] data type
        // I want this function to be for all (numerics) data types
        private static int[] bySmellest(int[] Arr)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < Arr.Length; i++)
            {
                for (int j = 0; j < Arr.Length; j++)
                {
                    if (Arr[j] < Arr[j - 1])
                    {
                        int tmp = Arr[j];
                        Arr[j] = Arr[j - 1];
                        Arr[j - 1] = Arr[j];
                    }
                }
            }
            return Arr;
        }

        // Error - byte[] != int
        public static byte[] BySmallest(byte[] Arr)
        {
            return bySmellest(Arr);
        }

        // Error - short[] != int
        public static short[] BySmallest(short[] Arr)
        {
            return bySmellest(Arr);
        }

        // True - int[] = int[]
        public static int[] BySmallest(int[] Arr)
        {
            return bySmellest(Arr);
        }
}

Thanks...

[jonsca]

Is this along the lines of what you are looking for? If so there are tons of resources about generics out there.

[sknake]

This functionality already exists and why not implement sort for every data type that supports IComparable or IComparable<T> ? There are extension methods in LINQ for dealing with arrays. You can call .ToList() on the array, move it to a list, and sort that. Or you could sort the array in place:

int[] somearray = new int[5];
      Array.Sort(somearray);