How do you sort a dictionary by value?

Solution 1:

Use LINQ:

Dictionary<string, int> myDict = new Dictionary<string, int>();
myDict.Add("one", 1);
myDict.Add("four", 4);
myDict.Add("two", 2);
myDict.Add("three", 3);

var sortedDict = from entry in myDict orderby entry.Value ascending select entry;

This would also allow for great flexibility in that you can select the top 10, 20 10%, etc. Or if you are using your word frequency index for type-ahead, you could also include StartsWith clause as well.

Solution 2:

Use:

using System.Linq.Enumerable;
...
List<KeyValuePair<string, string>> myList = aDictionary.ToList();

myList.Sort(
    delegate(KeyValuePair<string, string> pair1,
    KeyValuePair<string, string> pair2)
    {
        return pair1.Value.CompareTo(pair2.Value);
    }
);

Since you're targeting .NET 2.0 or above, you can simplify this into lambda syntax -- it's equivalent, but shorter. If you're targeting .NET 2.0 you can only use this syntax if you're using the compiler from Visual Studio 2008 (or above).

var myList = aDictionary.ToList();

myList.Sort((pair1,pair2) => pair1.Value.CompareTo(pair2.Value));

Solution 3:

You could use:

var ordered = dict.OrderBy(x => x.Value).ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value);