Sorting an array of dates

Question

I have created an array from a CSV of date values and now need to be able to sort them so that I can then get the latest date from the array.

I have tried:

Array.Sort()

but this doesn't sort correctly, I suppose because the array values are strings, any body got any ideas??

Thanks for any help.

CODE USED TO CREATE ARRAY

'array string exampel: "19/07/2012,23/07/2012,23/07/2012,19/07/2012,25/07/2012"
Dim ArrDates As Array = ArrDates .Split(",")

SOLUTION

Dim ArrAgentsReportCheck As Array = AgentsReportCheck.Split(",")

Dim ArrDates As New List(Of Date)
For i As Integer = 0 To ArrAgentsReportCheck.Length - 1
    ArrDates.Add(ArrAgentsReportCheck(i))
Next

ArrDates.Sort()
Dim LatestDate As Date = ArrDates.Max()

Answer 1

As astander said, It is very complicated to sort a array having datetime values. Instead just convert the array to List or ArrayList and make your life easy.

For ArrayList you can use the following syntax:

List<DateTime> dates = ... // init and fill
dates.Sort();
dates.Reverse();

Answer 2

ArrDates = ArrDates.OrderBy(Function(d) DateTime.ParseExact(d, "dd/MM/yyyy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)).ToArray()

Alternately, you can use OrderByDescending() depending upon your needs.

Answer 3

One way would be to convert strings to DateTime using DateTime.ParseExact

Another way just to write your own IComparer and pass to Array.Sort