Javascript array sort() is the inbuilt method that sorts all the items of the array in place and returns that array. The sort() method can also accept the parameter like function. So it will sort an array based on that function logic. The default sort order is built on converting the item into strings and then comparing their sequences of UTF-16 code unit values.
Javascript array sort example
The sort order can be either an alphabetic or the numeric, and either the ascending (up) or descending (down). Javascript array sort() method is not a pure function because the sort() method changes the original array.
Syntax
array.sort(compareFunction)
The compareFunction() parameter is an optional argument. The function that defines an alternative sort order and it should return a negative, zero, or positive value, depending on the arguments.
Let us take a simple example without a compare function. Create an app.js file and add the code.
// app.js let points = [4, 10, 100, 25, 2, 20]; points.sort(); console.log(points);
Run the above file by typing the node app command in the terminal. See the output, and it is not what you have expected.
Output
Again, it does not merely put the values in ascending order. By default, the array sort() function sorts the values as strings in the alphabetical and ascending order.
#Advance array sort() method example
Let us pass the compareFunction and change the default sort order.
// app.js let points = [4, 10, 100, 25, 2, 20]; const sortAsc = (a, b) => a - b; points.sort(sortAsc); console.log(points);
So, here we are sorting the values in Ascending order, and we have written one JS function to do that. Run the file.
Output
We can do the Descending order also.
// app.js let points = [4, 10, 100, 25, 2, 20]; const sortAsc = (a, b) => b - a; points.sort(sortAsc); console.log(points);
If the compareFunction() is not supplied, all non-undefined array elements are sorted by converting them to strings and comparing strings in UTF-16 code units order.
// app.js let freelance = ['Upwork', 'Freelancer', 'Truelancer', 'PeoplePerHour']; freelance.sort(); console.log(freelance);
Output
#Sorting array of objects
See the following example.
let apps = [
{ name: 'Amazon', value: 1 },
{ name: 'Amazon Prime', value: 21 },
{ name: 'Amazon Music', value: 10 },
{ name: 'Amazon Go', value: 100 },
{ name: 'Amazon Alexa', value: 13 }
];
apps.sort((a, b) => a.value-b.value);
console.log(apps);
Here, we have used the arrow function. Now, it will sort the Ascending order based on the values.
Output
#Sorting non-ASCII characters and localeCompare()
For sorting strings with the non-ASCII characters, i.e., strings with accented characters like these (e, é, è, a, ä, etc.),
The strings from other languages apart from English: use the String.localCompare() method. The String.localCompare() function can compare those characters, so they appear in the right order.
// app.js
let words = ['réservé', 'premier', 'cliché', 'communiqué', 'café', 'adieu'];
words.sort(function (a, b) {
return a.localeCompare(b);
});
console.log(words);Output
node app [ 'adieu', 'café', 'cliché', 'communiqué', 'premier', 'réservé' ]
#How to reverse an array in Javascript
Javascript array reverse() method reverses the elements in an array. You can use it to sort an array in descending order.
See the following code.
# app.py
let data = ['Kingdom', 'You', 'Friends', 'Dark']
console.log('After sorting array: ', data.sort())
console.log('After reversing array: ', data.reverse())Output
node app After sorting array: [ 'Dark', 'Friends', 'Kingdom', 'You' ] After reversing array: [ 'You', 'Kingdom', 'Friends', 'Dark' ]
Using array.reverse() method, you can use it to sort an array in descending order.
#Numeric Sort in Javascript array
By default, the sort() function sorts values as strings.
This works well for strings (“Apple” comes before “Banana”).
However, if numbers are sorted as strings, “25” is bigger than “100”, because “2” is bigger than “1”.
Because of this, the sort() method will produce incorrect results when sorting numbers.
See the following code.
// app.js let points = [11, 19, 21, 18, 46, 10]; points.sort((a, b) => a - b); console.log(points)
Output
node app [ 10, 11, 18, 19, 21, 46 ]
When a sort() function compares two values, it sends the values to the compare function and sorts the values according to the returned which are the negative, zero, positive.
If the result is negative, then a is sorted before b.
If the result is positive, then b is sorted before a.
If the result is 0, then no changes are made with the sort order of the two values.
#How to sort an Array in Random Order
We can use Javascript Math.random() function to get the random results.
// app.js let points = [11, 19, 21, 18, 46, 10]; points.sort(() => 0.5 - Math.random()); console.log(points)
Output
node app [ 10, 11, 18, 19, 21, 46 ] node app [ 11, 46, 10, 19, 18, 21 ] node app [ 10, 21, 46, 19, 18, 11 ] node app [ 21, 10, 18, 46, 19, 11 ] node app [ 10, 46, 11, 19, 21, 18 ] node app [ 10, 21, 19, 46, 18, 11 ] node app [ 10, 19, 21, 11, 18, 46 ]
From the output, you can see that every time we run the node.js file, we will get the different sorted random output.
#How to sort the array of objects by a specified property
If you want to render any array list, but first you want to order it by the value of one of the properties. For instance, you want to order it by the salary amount which is in Number then you can use a sort() method of array, which takes the callback function, which takes as parameters 2 objects contained in an array (which we call the and b).
// app.js
let employees = [
{ name: 'Olivia', salary: 90000, age: 29 },
{ name: 'Taylor', salary: 75000, age: 32 },
{ name: 'Mea', salary: 85000, age: 35 }
];
employees.sort((x, y) => x.salary - y.salary);
console.log(employees)Output
node app
[
{ name: 'Taylor', salary: 75000, age: 32 },
{ name: 'Mea', salary: 85000, age: 35 },
{ name: 'Olivia', salary: 90000, age: 29 }
]The above code example is similar to the example of sorting the array of numbers in ascending order. The only difference is that it compares the salary property of two objects instead.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have learned how to use the JavaScript sort() method to sort arrays of strings, numbers, and objects. Finally, Javascript array sort() example Tutorial is over.
thanks for the guide