sorting a javascript array with numbers stored as text

Question

I'm trying to sorted my array. I'm trying to sort the blocks by the [2] entry in each of the square brackets. So the 15th should be at the top and the 8th should be second and so on.

I've tried using.

var sorted = data.sort(function(a,b){return b[2]-a[2]});
console.log(sorted);

and

data.sort(function(a,b){return b[2]-a[2]});
console.log(sorted);

but this didn't work. Is it because the numbers are stored as text? if so i've tried par

data.sort(function(a,b){return parseFloat(b[2])-parseFloat(a[2])});
console.log(sorted);

and this didn't work either.

0:(2) ["HDR", "GENERATION BY FUEL TYPE CURRENT Last Updated At 20180719150500"]
1:(2) ["FTR", "14"]
2:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OCGT", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0"]
3:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OIL", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0"]
4:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "COAL", "947", "3.0", "900", "2.9", "15144", "2.2"]
5:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "NUCLEAR", "6407", "20.4", "6477", "20.8", "158268", "22.5"]
6:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "WIND", "1710", "5.4", "1678", "5.4", "11903", "1.7"]
7:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "PS", "165", "0.5", "174", "0.6", "6854", "1.0"]
8:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "CCGT", "17355", "55.2", "17144", "55.1", "382043", "54.3"]
9:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OTHER", "59", "0.2", "59", "0.2", "1406", "0.2"]
10:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTFR", "1998", "6.4", "1998", "6.4", "47363", "6.7"]
11:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTIRL", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "1960", "0.3"]
12:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTNED", "1001", "3.2", "1000", "3.2", "23097", "3.3"]
13:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTEW", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "4803", "0.7"]
14:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "BIOMASS", "1649", "5.2", "1621", "5.2", "48031", "6.8"]
15:(7) ["TOTAL", "31448", "100.0", "31128", "100.0", "703547", "100.0"]
16:(8) ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "NPSHYD", "157", "0.5", "77", "0.2", "2675", "0.4"]

any help would be appreciated.

your missing the `s` in `pareFloat`. Should be `parseFloat`. — Get Off My Lawn, Jul 19 '18 at 15:31
your array at index 1 is not having an element at index 2. what about that? — amrender singh, Jul 19 '18 at 15:32
You are mixing different types of records. You need to clean your data first and then sort them. Items at indexes 1 and 15 are obviously just some aggregations and the item at index 0 is some label. — Razem, Jul 19 '18 at 15:36
@GetOffMyLawn this is the unsorted data. the things i have tried don't make a difference — adam Wadsworth, Jul 19 '18 at 15:42
`0:(2)` and the rest aren't valid values in an array. Please convert it to a valid array. — Get Off My Lawn, Jul 19 '18 at 15:43
`const result = data.filter((item) => Number.isFinite(parseFloat(item[2]))).sort((a, b) => parseFloat(b[2]) - parseFloat(a[2]))` - this works for me. — Razem, Jul 19 '18 at 15:46

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 19 '18 at 15:39

1

This would do your trick

var collator = new Intl.Collator(undefined, {
  numeric: true,
  sensitivity: 'base'
});
var myArray = ['1_Document', '11_Document', '2_Document'];
console.log(myArray.sort(collator.compare));

Reference: This answer

edited Jul 19 '18 at 15:39

Get Off My Lawn

34,175
38
176
338

answered Jul 19 '18 at 15:33

Shujat Munawar

1,657
19
23

This kind of works but it's sorting on the [1] entry of each array. I need to sort from the [2] of each array from largest to smallest? – adam Wadsworth Jul 19 '18 at 15:41

Nina Scholz · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-20T18:08:53.620

You could take a huge value Infinity for sorting non given items to top.

Array#sort expects a numerical value of smaller than zero, zero or greater than zero for the wanted order. To get this result, you could take for simple numbers the delta of it.

b - a // sorts descending

For a not used index of the array, you could check it with in operator and take a value which shifts or keeps the item at the actual place on top by using a greater value then usually taken as number in the array, which is Infinity.

var data = [["HDR", "GENERATION BY FUEL TYPE CURRENT Last Updated At 20180719150500"], ["FTR", "14"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OCGT", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OIL", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "COAL", "947", "3.0", "900", "2.9", "15144", "2.2"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "NUCLEAR", "6407", "20.4", "6477", "20.8", "158268", "22.5"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "WIND", "1710", "5.4", "1678", "5.4", "11903", "1.7"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "PS", "165", "0.5", "174", "0.6", "6854", "1.0"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "CCGT", "17355", "55.2", "17144", "55.1", "382043", "54.3"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "OTHER", "59", "0.2", "59", "0.2", "1406", "0.2"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTFR", "1998", "6.4", "1998", "6.4", "47363", "6.7"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTIRL", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "1960", "0.3"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTNED", "1001", "3.2", "1000", "3.2", "23097", "3.3"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "INTEW", "0", "0.0", "0", "0.0", "4803", "0.7"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "BIOMASS", "1649", "5.2", "1621", "5.2", "48031", "6.8"], ["TOTAL", "31448", "100.0", "31128", "100.0", "703547", "100.0"], ["FUELINSTHHCUR", "NPSHYD", "157", "0.5", "77", "0.2", "2675", "0.4"]];

data.sort((a, b) => (2 in b ? b[2] : Infinity) - (2 in a ? a[2] : Infinity));

console.log(data);

.as-console-wrapper { max-height: 100% !important; top: 0; }

could you possibly explain what this is doing to sort the data? — adam Wadsworth, Jul 20 '18 at 15:09

sorting a javascript array with numbers stored as text

2 Answers2