sort-array

Isomorphic, load-anywhere function to sort an array by scalar, deep or computed values in any standard or custom order.

const sortArray = require('sort-array')

Synopsis

Some trivial examples to demonstrate typical usage.

Sorting an array of primitives

Ascending order

Sort an array of strings in ascending order (the default).

> const partsOfTheDay = ['twilight', 'afternoon', 'morning', 'evening']

> sortArray(partsOfTheDay)
[ 'afternoon', 'evening', 'morning', 'twilight' ]

Descending order

Sort an array of strings in descending order.

> sortArray(partsOfTheDay, { order: 'desc' })
[ 'twilight', 'morning', 'evening', 'afternoon' ]

Custom sort order

The default value for options.order is 'asc'. You can also specify 'desc' or the name of a property from the customOrders object. For example, sort parts of the day by the order in which they occur.

> sortArray(partsOfTheDay, {
  order: 'time',
  customOrders: {
    time: ['morning', 'afternoon', 'evening', 'twilight']
  }
})
[ 'morning', 'afternoon', 'evening', 'twilight' ]

Sorting an array of objects

Sort by object property

Pass one or more property names to options.by to sort an array of objects by those properties.

> const repositories = [
  { name: '75lb/sort-array', openIssues: 0, closedIssues: 4 },
  { name: 'lwsjs/local-web-server', openIssues: 4, closedIssues: 80 },
  { name: 'jsdoc2md/jsdoc-api', openIssues: 3, closedIssues: 47 }
]

> sortArray(repositories, {
  by: 'openIssues',
  order: 'desc'
})
[
  { name: 'lwsjs/local-web-server', openIssues: 4, closedIssues: 80 },
  { name: 'jsdoc2md/jsdoc-api', openIssues: 3, closedIssues: 47 },
  { name: '75lb/sort-array', openIssues: 0, closedIssues: 4 }
]

Sort by computed field

Sort by a computed field, i.e. a computed value that doesn't exist in the input dataset. Define your computed fields in the options.computed object, each value being a function which takes an array member as input and returns the primitive value to be sorted by. In this example we sort by total (the name of the computed field supplied in options.computed).

> const repositories = [
  { name: '75lb/sort-array', openIssues: 0, closedIssues: 4 },
  { name: 'lwsjs/local-web-server', openIssues: 4, closedIssues: 80 },
  { name: 'jsdoc2md/jsdoc-api', openIssues: 3, closedIssues: 47 }
]

> sortArray(repositories, {
  by: 'total',
  order: 'desc',
  computed: {
    total: repository => repository.openIssues + repository.closedIssues
  }
})
[
  { name: 'lwsjs/local-web-server', openIssues: 4, closedIssues: 80 },
  { name: 'jsdoc2md/jsdoc-api', openIssues: 3, closedIssues: 47 },
  { name: '75lb/sort-array', openIssues: 0, closedIssues: 4 }
]

Sort by deep object values

You can use computed fields to sort by values deep in an object structure.

> const data = [
  { inner: { number: 2 } },
  { inner: { number: 3 } },
  { inner: { number: 1 } }
]

> sortArray(data, {
  by: 'number',
  computed: {
    number: row => row.inner.number
  }
})
[
  { inner: { number: 1 } },
  { inner: { number: 2 } },
  { inner: { number: 3 } }
]

Sort by multiple fields

Sort by multiple columns using multiple custom orders.

> const attributes = [
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'medium' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'high' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'high' },
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'medium' },
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'high' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'medium' }
]

> sortArray(attributes, {
  by: ['skill', 'confidence'],
  order: ['skill', 'confidence'],
  customOrders: {
    skill: ['accuracy', 'speed', 'power'],
    confidence: ['low', 'medium', 'high'],
  }
})
[
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'medium' },
  { skill: 'accuracy', confidence: 'high' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'medium' },
  { skill: 'speed', confidence: 'high' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'low' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'medium' },
  { skill: 'power', confidence: 'high' }
]

Please visit the sort-array wiki for more examples.

API Reference

{{>main}}

Load anywhere

This library is compatible with Node.js, the Web and any style of module loader. It can be loaded anywhere, natively without transpilation.

Node.js:

const sortArray = require('sort-array')

Within Node.js with ECMAScript Module support enabled:

import sortArray from 'sort-array'

Within an modern browser ECMAScript Module:

import sortArray from './node_modules/sort-array/dist/index.mjs'

Old browser (adds window.sortArray):

<script nomodule src="./node_modules/sort-array/dist/index.js"></script>

© 2015-24 Lloyd Brookes <[email protected]>.

Tested by test-runner. Documented by jsdoc-to-markdown.