'How to sort sequential GUIDs in C#?

Sequential GUIDs are unique but are created with an order; that order is slightly unusual and is different to the order achieved when using the standard .NET Guid comparer.

I'm looking for a C# Guid comparer that will sort by the rules of sequential GUIDs.

== UPDATE==

I'm specifically referring to sequential GUIDs created by NewSequentialId() in SQL Server, although I realise now that the standard Win32 API call UuidCreateSequential() uses a different scheme to SQL Server (I assumed they were the same when I wrote the question).

== UPDATE 2==

petelids gives the answer below, using e.g. List<System.Data.SqlGuid>.Sort() gives the following sequence (using an initial list of GUIDs with a 1 in each 4 bit location)...

01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
10000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00010000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00100000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000100-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00001000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-1000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0001-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0010-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0100-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-1000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0001-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0010-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0001-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0010-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0100-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-1000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000010
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000100
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000001000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000010000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000100000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000001000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000100000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-001000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-010000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-100000000000

As opposed to the following order returned by List<System.Guid>.Sort()

00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000010
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000100
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000001000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000010000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000100000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000001000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000010000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000100000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-001000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-010000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0000-100000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0001-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0010-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-0100-000000000000
00000000-0000-0000-1000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0001-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0010-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-0100-0000-000000000000
00000000-0000-1000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0001-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0010-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-0100-0000-0000-000000000000
00000000-1000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00000100-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00001000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00010000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
00100000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
10000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Solution 1:^[1]

Necromancing:
The answer covers the how, but not the why.
So, just for the record, SQL-server sorts them by bytes by order, that is to say a custom bytes order:

private static readonly int[] x_rgiGuidOrder = new int[16] // 16 Bytes = 128 Bit 
        {10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 8, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3};

In other words, if you imagine a Guid as continuous UInt128-number, you need to partition it into 16 chunks of base 256, and arrange the chunks in their sort-order to produce SQL-compatible UIDs.

In case that is not clear:

public class SqlGuid
    : System.IComparable
    , System.IComparable<SqlGuid>
    , System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<SqlGuid>
    , System.IEquatable<SqlGuid>
{
    private const int NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID = 16;

    // Comparison orders.
    private static readonly int[] m_byteOrder = new int[16] // 16 Bytes = 128 Bit 
    {10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 8, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3};

    private byte[] m_bytes; // the SqlGuid is null if m_value is null


    public SqlGuid(byte[] guidBytes)
    {
        if (guidBytes == null || guidBytes.Length != NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID)
            throw new System.ArgumentException("Invalid array size");

        m_bytes = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];
        guidBytes.CopyTo(m_bytes, 0);
    }


    public SqlGuid(System.Guid g)
    {
        m_bytes = g.ToByteArray();
    }


    public byte[] ToByteArray()
    {
        byte[] ret = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];
        m_bytes.CopyTo(ret, 0);
        return ret;
    }

    int CompareTo(object obj)
    {
        if (obj == null)
            return 1; // https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.icomparable.compareto(v=vs.110).aspx

        System.Type t = obj.GetType();

        if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(System.DBNull)))
            return 1;

        if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(SqlGuid)))
        {
            SqlGuid ui = (SqlGuid)obj;
            return this.Compare(this, ui);
        } // End if (object.ReferenceEquals(t, typeof(UInt128)))

        return 1;
    } // End Function CompareTo(object obj)


    int System.IComparable.CompareTo(object obj)
    {
        return this.CompareTo(obj);
    }


    int CompareTo(SqlGuid other)
    {
        return this.Compare(this, other);
    }


    int System.IComparable<SqlGuid>.CompareTo(SqlGuid other)
    {
        return this.Compare(this, other);
    }


    enum EComparison : int
    {
        LT = -1, // itemA precedes itemB in the sort order.
        EQ = 0, // itemA occurs in the same position as itemB in the sort order.
        GT = 1 // itemA follows itemB in the sort order.
    }


    public int Compare(SqlGuid x, SqlGuid y)
    {
        byte byte1, byte2;

        //Swap to the correct order to be compared
        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID; i++)
        {
            byte1 = x.m_bytes[m_byteOrder[i]];
            byte2 = y.m_bytes[m_byteOrder[i]];
            if (byte1 != byte2)
                return (byte1 < byte2) ?  (int) EComparison.LT : (int) EComparison.GT;
        } // Next i 

        return (int) EComparison.EQ;
    }


    int System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<SqlGuid>.Compare(SqlGuid x, SqlGuid y)
    {
        return this.Compare(x, y);
    }


    public bool Equals(SqlGuid other)
    {
        return Compare(this, other) == 0;
    }


    bool System.IEquatable<SqlGuid>.Equals(SqlGuid other)
    {
        return this.Equals(other);
    }


}

Which means you can do it without SqlGuid, by doing:

public class TestClass 
{
    public static void Test()
    {
        System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Guid> ls = new System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Guid>();
        for(int i = 0; i < 100; ++i)
            ls.Add(System.Guid.NewGuid());

        ls.Sort(Compare);
    }


    public static int Compare(System.Guid x, System.Guid y)
    {
        const int NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID = 16;
        byte byte1, byte2;

        byte[] xBytes = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];
        byte[] yBytes = new byte[NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID];

        x.ToByteArray().CopyTo(xBytes, 0);
        y.ToByteArray().CopyTo(yBytes, 0);

        int[] byteOrder = new int[16] // 16 Bytes = 128 Bit 
            {10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 8, 9, 6, 7, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2, 3};


        //Swap to the correct order to be compared
        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_BYTES_IN_GUID; i++)
        {
            byte1 = xBytes[byteOrder[i]];
            byte2 = yBytes[byteOrder[i]];
            if (byte1 != byte2)
                return (byte1 < byte2) ? -1 : 1;
        } // Next i 

        return 0;
    }

}

Although it will be more efficient with SqlGuid, because SqlGuid doesn't need to re-compute the byte-array every single time a comparison takes place.

Solution 2:^[2]

Digressing: see Raymond Chen's How many ways are there to sort GUIDs?

Summarized as:

Algorithm	Byte array	String
memcmp	00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 AA BB CC DD EE FF	{33221100-5544-7766-8899-AABBCCDDEEFF}
System.Guid / string	33 22 11 00 55 44 77 66 88 99 AA BB CC DD EE FF	{00112233-4455-6677-8899-AABBCCDDEEFF}
SqlGuid	CC DD EE FF AA BB 88 99 66 77 00 11 22 33 44 55	{FFEEDDCC-BBAA-9988-6677-001122334455}
Platform::Guid	33 22 11 00 77 66 55 44 BB AA 99 88 FF EE DD CC	{00112233-6677-4455-BBAA-9988FFEEDDCC}

And Java treats each GUID as a pair of signed 64-bit integers in big-endian format, see Another way to sort GUIDs: Java. In two columns (bits 0 and 64) the sort order is 89ABCDEF01234567. In the other columns, the sort order is 0123456789ABCDEF.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1
Solution 2	Yahoo Serious

'How to sort sequential GUIDs in C#?

Solution 1:[1]

Solution 2:[2]

Sources

Related Questions

Solution 1:^[1]

Solution 2:^[2]