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    Querying: Sorting

    Basics

    Starting from RavenDB 4.0, the server will determine possible sorting capabilities automatically from the indexed value, but sorting will not be applied until you request it by using the appropriate methods. The following queries will not return ordered results:

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock' 
where UnitsInStock > 10

    To start sorting, we need to request to order by some specified index field. In our case we will order by UnitsInStock in descending order:

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OrderByDescending(x => x.UnitsInStock)
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OrderByDescending(x => x.UnitsInStock)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by UnitsInStock as long desc

    Forcing ordering type

    By default, OrderBy methods will determine OrderingType from the property path expression (e.g. x => x.UnitsInStock will result in OrderingType.Long because property type is an integer), but a different ordering can be forced by passing OrderingType explicitly to one of the OrderBy methods.

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OrderByDescending(x => x.UnitsInStock, OrderingType.String)
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OrderByDescending("UnitsInStock", OrderingType.String)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by UnitsInStock desc

    Ordering by Score

    When a query is issued, each index entry is scored by Lucene (you can read more about Lucene scoring here).
    This value is available in metadata information of the resulting query documents under @index-score (the higher the value, the better the match).
    To order by this value you can use the OrderByScore or the OrderByScoreDescending methods:

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OrderByScore()
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OrderByScore()
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by score()

    Chaining Orderings

    It is also possible to chain multiple orderings of the query results. You can sort the query results first by some specified index field (or by the @index-score), then sort all the equal entries by some different index field (or the @index-score).
    This can be achived by using the ThenBy (ThenByDescending) and ThenByScore (ThenByScoreDescending) methods.

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStockAndName>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OrderBy(x => x.UnitsInStock)
    .ThenByScore()
    .ThenByDescending(x => x.Name)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStockAndName : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStockAndName()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock,
                              product.Name
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStockAndName' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by UnitsInStock, score(), Name desc

    Random Ordering

    If you want to randomize the order of your results each time the query is executed, use the RandomOrdering method (API reference here):

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Customize(x => x.RandomOrdering())
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .RandomOrdering()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by random()

    Ordering When a Field is Searchable

    When sorting must be done on field that is Searchable, due to Lucene limitations sorting on such a field is not supported. To overcome this, create another field that is not searchable and sort by it.

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Products_ByName_Search.Result, Products_ByName_Search>()
    .Search(x => x.Name, "Louisiana")
    .OrderByDescending(x => x.NameForSorting)
    .OfType<Product>()
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByName_Search>()
    .Search("Name", "Louisiana")
    .OrderByDescending("NameForSorting")
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByName_Search : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public class Result
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public string NameForSorting { get; set; }
    }

    public Products_ByName_Search()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              Name = product.Name,
                              NameForSorting = product.Name
                          };

        Indexes.Add(x => x.Name, FieldIndexing.Search);
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByName/Search' 
where search(Name, 'Louisiana')
order by NameForSorting desc

    AlphaNumeric Ordering

    Sometimes when ordering strings, it doesn't make sense to use the default lexicographic ordering.

    For example, "Abc9" will come after "Abc10" because if treated as single characters, 9 is greater than 1.

    If you want digit characters in a string to be treated as numbers and not as text, you should use alphanumeric ordering. In that case, when comparing "Abc10" to "Abc9", the digits 1 and 0 will be treated as the number 10 which will be considered greater than 9.

    To order in this mode you can pass the OrderingType.AlphaNumeric type into OrderBy or OrderByDescending: 

    IList<Product> results = session
    .Query<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .Where(x => x.UnitsInStock > 10)
    .OrderBy(x => x.Name, OrderingType.AlphaNumeric)
    .ToList();
    IList<Product> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Product, Products_ByUnitsInStock>()
    .WhereGreaterThan(x => x.UnitsInStock, 10)
    .OrderBy("Name", OrderingType.AlphaNumeric)
    .ToList();
    public class Products_ByUnitsInStock : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
    public Products_ByUnitsInStock()
    {
        Map = products => from product in products
                          select new
                          {
                              product.UnitsInStock
                          };
    }
}
    from index 'Products/ByUnitsInStock ' 
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by Name as alphanumeric

    Spatial Ordering

    If your data contains geographical locations, you might want to sort the query result by distance from a given point.

    This can be achieved by using the OrderByDistance and OrderByDistanceDescending methods (API reference here):

    List<Event> results = session
    .Query<Event, Events_ByCoordinates>()
    .Spatial(
        "Coordinates",
        criteria => criteria.WithinRadius(500, 30, 30))
    .OrderByDistance(
        factory => factory.Point(x => x.Latitude, x => x.Longitude), 32.1234, 23.4321)
    .ToList();
    List<Event> results = session
    .Advanced
    .DocumentQuery<Event, Events_ByCoordinates>()
    .Spatial(
        "Coordinates",
        criteria => criteria.WithinRadius(500, 30, 30))
    .OrderByDistance(
        factory => factory.Point(x => x.Latitude, x => x.Longitude), 32.1234, 23.4321)
    .ToList();
    private class Events_ByCoordinates : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Event>
{
    public Events_ByCoordinates()
    {
        Map = events => from e in events
                        select new
                        {
                            Coordinates = CreateSpatialField(e.Latitude, e.Longitude)
                        };
    }
}
    from index 'Events/ByCoordinates'
where spatial.within(Coordinates, spatial.circle(500, 30, 30))
order by spatial.distance(spatial.point(Latitude, Longitude), spatial.point(32.1234, 23.4321))

    Creating a Custom Sorter

    Lucene also allows you to create your own custom sorters. Create a sorter that inherits from the Lucene class FieldComparator, and send it to the server using the PutSortersOperation: 

    PutSortersOperation(params SorterDefinition[] sortersToAdd)
    public class SorterDefinition
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Code { get; set; }
}

    Example

    //Assign the code of your new sorter as a `string`
var sorterCode = "<code of custom sorter>";

//Create one or more `SorterDefinition` objects
var customSorterDefinition = new SorterDefinition
{
    Name = "MySorter",
    Code = sorterCode
};

//Send the new sorters to the server
documentStore.Maintenance.Send(new PutSortersOperation(customSorterDefinition));

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