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I'm trying to sort dates that are saved in a text document, i have done this using a List. When I try to save the details back into a text document, and inside the document all I see saved is

System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Event_Manager.Form3+MyClass]

This code below is executed with a button, that supposedly sorts the dates, but i can't even see if this code actually sorts the dates, because i keep getting

System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Event_Manager.Form3+MyClass]

saved instead of the original data.

I have tried using .ToString() to prevent this from happening, but it still shows the save output saved into the document.


            // Read the file and display it line by line.
            StreamReader file = new StreamReader("Events.txt");

            List<MyClass> myClassList = new List<MyClass>();

            while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
            {
                string[] split = line.Split(',');

                MyClass myclass = new MyClass();

                myclass.date = DateTime.Parse(split[2]);

                myClassList.Add(myclass);
            }

            file.Close();

            // Sort the list by date
            List<MyClass> myClassListSorted = myClassList.OrderByDescending(x => x.date).ToList();

            using (StreamWriter sr = new StreamWriter(@"Events.txt"))
            {
                foreach (var item in myClassList)
                {
                    sr.WriteLine(myClassListSorted.ToString());

                }
                sr.Close();
            }

I should be able to see the actual data that i originally had saved in the text document, but with sorted dates, rather it just has System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Event_Manager.Form3+MyClass]

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  • As noted in the marked duplicates, when you see the name of a type, you're seeing the default implementation of ToString(). When this is a list, nearly always what you really wanted was to somehow represent the list's contents as text, not the list object itself. See marked duplicates for various techniques for achieving that. Commented Jul 28, 2019 at 4:10
  • Peter - that was only one part of the problem. Read my comment for the second half. Commented Jul 28, 2019 at 4:35

1 Answer 1

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You're looping through the unsorted list and then trying to write the sorted list object (not the items INSIDE the sorted list). Near the end you should be doing this:

foreach (var item in myClassListSorted)
{
     sr.WriteLine(item.date.ToString());
}

Format the date property as needed. Or you can save the original line in each MyClass and then write that line out to the file after sorting.

while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
{
            string[] split = line.Split(',');
            MyClass myclass = new MyClass();
            myclass.date = DateTime.Parse(split[2]);
            MyClass.originalLine = line; // <---------
            myClassList.Add(myclass);
}

And then later in the loop:

     sr.WriteLine(item.originalLine);

That way the data in the text file is the same but just now in sorted order.

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2 Comments

Thanks soo much, I've been trying for soo long and you saved me :)
No problem. Don't forget to upvote! :)

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