using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

​

/*  

Donald:

    I thought that I might not have fully answered your coding question yesterday. While the List<Pallet> variable

    was a good starting point in simplifying the example, providing reusability and removed the multi-collection

    indexer and syncronicity issue... it however didn't address simplifying the sorting further down in the 

    example. So I quickly wrote this up to handle the sorting:

*/

​

​

public class Program

{

    static List<Pallet> pallets = new List<Pallet>();

    public static void Main()

    {

        // Initialize pallets

        pallets.Add(new Pallet("A1", Convert.ToDateTime("05-01-2018"), 30));

        pallets.Add(new Pallet("A2", Convert.ToDateTime("03-01-2018"), 40));

        pallets.Add(new Pallet("B3", Convert.ToDateTime("04-01-2018"), 20));

        pallets.Add(new Pallet("B5", Convert.ToDateTime("01-01-2018"), 25));

        pallets.Add(new Pallet("C2", Convert.ToDateTime("02-01-2018"), 5));

        // Method 1 - using Linq.

        // Pros: Faster, easier, more obviously understandable way

        // Cons: Slower to process, creates and initializes another list - consuming more memory (short term)

        Console.WriteLine("Linq:");

        List<Pallet> oldestPalletsFirst1 = pallets.OrderBy(p => p.ManufactureDate).ToList();

        DisplayPalletOrder(oldestPalletsFirst1);

        Console.WriteLine("----");

        // Method 2 - using IComparable

        // Pros: Is more object oriented, faster to run, consuming less server memory

        // Cons: More difficult to understand initially, sort process isn't apparent, and more time consuming to develop

        Console.WriteLine("IComparable:");

        pallets.Sort();

        DisplayPalletOrder(pallets);

    }

    private static void DisplayPalletOrder(List<Pallet> pallets)

    {

        foreach(var pallet in pallets)

            Console.WriteLine(" Pallet: {0}, MfrDate: {1}", pallet.Code, pallet.ManufactureDate);

    }

}

​

/// Summary: The Pallet data object

public class Pallet : IComparable<Pallet>

{

    public string Code {get; set;}

    public DateTime ManufactureDate {get; set;}

    public int Remaining {get; set;}

    // Constructor

    public Pallet(string code, DateTime mfrDate, int initialCount)

    {

        this.Code = code;

        this.ManufactureDate = mfrDate;

        this.Remaining = initialCount;

    }

    // Default/automatic sorting algorithm when calling .Sort() method

    public int CompareTo(Pallet other)

    {

        if ( other == null ) return -1;

        if ( this.ManufactureDate > other.ManufactureDate) return 1;

        if ( this.ManufactureDate < other.ManufactureDate) return -1;

        return 0;

    }

}