BindingList with IList<T> DataSource, Element Order

Can I assume that the order of the elements from an IList<T> remains equal, when I use it as a DataSource of a BindingSource (Windows Forms), so that BindingSource.Position and List.IndexOf() are equivalent on the same object?

This is importan开发者_运维问答t to me, as Find is not supported on lists that are no BindingList, so I use the plain old IList.IndexOf method to determine the position of an element:

myBindingSource.Position = myItemList.IndexOf(myItem);

Apparently this works fine. But I don't know whether I could not figure out yet whether I can actually depend on this to work. I'm a bit worried, because the BindingList's List property copies the data into new list structures (see the DataSource remarks)...

Cheers, Matthias

Yes, IList<T> should keep the same ordering at all times. It's a step beyond IEnumerable<T> (in terms of additional functionality) which does not guarantee ordering, just the ability to enumerate over the collection. IList<T> adds indexing to support more functionality such as .IndexOf() and .RemoveAt() which requires indexing.

Now, whether or not the data source from which you populate your IList<T> returns items in the same order, that's another story.