How to sort an array of objects with jquery or javascript

Question

I have an array of objects:

var array = [(id, name, value),(id, name, value)]; //and so on

How do I get the array to be sorted in ascending order of the atribute name (array[i][1])?

I've tried to do this: array[i][1].sort(), but that doesn't work.

Please help me!

Edit: the array can contain more than two objects! It can contain hundreds.

Edit: Why is this question marked as a duplicate, when it was asked 2 years before the "duplicated" question?

Do you have a 2 dimensional array or an array of objects? The above looks more like an array of objects to me. — Chris Shouts, Mar 31 '11 at 17:36
@Sime Sorry about the syntax, I didn't remember it at the time. — Karoline Brynildsen, Mar 31 '11 at 18:30
@Chris yeah, when I think about it it is acutally an array of objects. Sorry about that, I'm multitasking here so sometimes I get a little confused. — Karoline Brynildsen, Mar 31 '11 at 18:31
Regarding your question about the duplicate marker: The other question was asked in 2009, see http://stackoverflow.com/posts/979256/revisions. — Markus, Oct 11 '16 at 13:37

score 405 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:38

405

//This will sort your array
function SortByName(a, b){
  var aName = a.name.toLowerCase();
  var bName = b.name.toLowerCase(); 
  return ((aName < bName) ? -1 : ((aName > bName) ? 1 : 0));
}

array.sort(SortByName);

answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:38

Ketan

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This has been known to break under certain browsers. I'm using IE8 for a project, and it doesn't work for this scenario. – Paolo del Mundo Aug 13 '12 at 14:30
1

@PaolodelMundo we have users who use IE 7/8/9. We haven't had any issues with this code. Can you provide more information about your code? – Ketan Mar 06 '13 at 17:00
The only thing I could imagine breaking it is the a.name.toLowerCase(). I'm just going to use jQuery selectors; I'm only sorting short arrays. – lededje Apr 04 '13 at 09:59
how would i reverse this sort? – chovy Aug 16 '13 at 07:17
@chovy to reverse the sort with minimal typing, switch the order of the parameters: function SortByName(b, a) { – Blake Miller Aug 24 '13 at 04:37
What is the reasoning behind using `toLowerCase` in a *sort*? – Jacksonkr Sep 29 '13 at 21:04
7

@Jackson To sort an array while ignoring case. – Ketan Nov 05 '13 at 22:21

score 38 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:44

var array = [[1, "grape", 42], [2, "fruit", 9]];

array.sort(function(a, b)
{
    // a and b will here be two objects from the array
    // thus a[1] and b[1] will equal the names

    // if they are equal, return 0 (no sorting)
    if (a[1] == b[1]) { return 0; }
    if (a[1] > b[1])
    {
        // if a should come after b, return 1
        return 1;
    }
    else
    {
        // if b should come after a, return -1
        return -1;
    }
});

The sort function takes an additional argument, a function that takes two arguments. This function should return -1, 0 or 1 depending on which of the two arguments should come first in the sorting. More info.

I also fixed a syntax error in your multidimensional array.

score 30 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 31 '16 at 05:52

30

//objects
var array = [{id:'12', name:'Smith', value:1},{id:'13', name:'Jones', value:2}];
array.sort(function(a, b){
    var a1= a.name.toLower(), b1= b.name.toLower();
    if(a1== b1) return 0;
    return a1> b1? 1: -1;
});

//arrays
var array =[ ['12', ,'Smith',1],['13', 'Jones',2]];
array.sort(function(a, b){
    var a1= a[1], b1= b[1];
    if(a1== b1) return 0;
    return a1> b1? 1: -1;
});

edited Mar 31 '16 at 05:52

Community

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answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:39

kennebec

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Life-saver! Would there be a way to make the elements dynamic? So ' array.sort(function(a,b,element){ var a1= a.element, b1= b.element; ' and so on... – SeaBass Sep 11 '14 at 18:59
See my answer below. You could easily extend this to do what you're asking @SeaBass. You may need to use a[var] syntax for the dynamic argument approach to work, but you don't need to explicitly return 0 as the answers above shows. 2 - 2 = 0. Less code. Same effect. – Wes Apr 05 '22 at 04:04

score 21 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 20 '13 at 15:16

21

data.sort(function(a,b) 
{
   return a.val - b.val;
});

answered Sep 20 '13 at 15:16

Wes

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score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:42

the sort method contains an optional argument to pass a custom compare function.

Assuming you wanted an array of arrays:

var arr = [[3, "Mike", 20],[5, "Alex", 15]];

function compareName(a, b)
{

  if (a[1] < b[1]) return -1;
  if (a[1] > b[1]) return 1;
  return 0;
}
arr.sort(compareName);

Otherwise if you wanted an array of objects, you could do:

function compareName(a, b)
{

  if (a.name < b.name) return -1;
  if (a.name > b.name) return 1;
  return 0;
}

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:36

3

Well, it appears that instead of creating a true multidimensional array, you've created an array of (almost) JavaScript Objects. Try defining your arrays like this ->

var array = [ [id,name,value], [id,name,value] ]

Hopefully that helps!

answered Mar 31 '11 at 17:36

Hacknightly

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How to sort an array of objects with jquery or javascript

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