IQueryable Sort not working

Question

What is wrong with the code below with regards to sorting? The sort code is hit, but the sorting is never applied to the results.

var results = new List<Location>();

var county = context.boc_County.Where(x => x.Description.Contains(phrase.ToLower())).ToList();
results.AddRange(_mapper.MapCountyFromDb(county));

var town = context.boc_Town.Where(x => x.Description.Contains(phrase.ToLower())).ToList();
results.AddRange(_mapper.MapTownFromDb(town));

if (orderBy == "Identifier")
{
    if (direction == "ASC")
        results = results.OrderBy(x => x.Identifier);
    else
        results = results.OrderByDescending(x => x.Identifier);
}

if (orderBy == "Type")
{
    if (direction == "ASC")
        results = results.OrderBy(x => x.LocationType.ToString());
    else
        results = results.OrderByDescending(x => x.LocationType.ToString());
}

if (orderBy == "Description")
{
    if (direction == "ASC") 
        results = results.OrderBy(x => x.Description);
    else
        results = results.OrderByDescending(x => x.Description);
}

var model = new LocationSearchResult()
{
    Locations = query.Skip(page * pageSize).Take(pageSize),
    TotalCount = query.Count()
};
return model;

Answer 1

OrderBy and OrderByDescending don't change the caller, they return new IQueryable/IEnuemrable instead. You have to assign it back to another (or the same) variable. Otherwise calling them has no sense.

Because you're using List<T> you have to add additional ToList() call to make it compile and work:

if (orderBy == "Identifier")
{
    if (direction == "ASC")
        results = results.OrderBy(x => x.Identifier).ToList();
    else
        results = results.OrderByDescending(x => x.Identifier).ToList();
}
// (...)

or you can use List<T>.Sort instead:

if (orderBy == "Identifier")
{
    if (direction == "ASC")
        results.Sort((x1, x2) => x1.Compare(x2));
    else
        results.Sort((x1, x2) => x2.Compare(x1));
}