Sorting a list alphabetically with a modulus

Question

I don\'t have any trouble grabbing a list of elements and sorting them alphabetically, but I\'m having difficulty understanding how to do it with a modulus.

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Answer 1

var columnify = function (a,n) { 
    var result = []; 
    for (var i = 0, lastIndex = a.length - 1; i < lastIndex; i++) 
       result.push(a[i * n % (lastIndex)]); 
    result[lastIndex] = a[lastIndex];
    return result; 
}

var products = ["Boots",
"Eyewear",
"Gloves",
"Heated Gear",
"Helmet Accessories",
"Helmets",
"Jackets",
"Mechanic's Wear",
"Pants",
"Protection",
"Rainwear",
"Random Apparel",
"Riding Suits",
"Riding Underwear",
"Socks",
"Vests",]

columnify(products, 4)
["Boots", "Helmet Accessories", "Pants", "Riding Suits", "Eyewear", "Helmets", "Protection", "Riding Underwear", "Gloves", "Jackets", "Rainwear", "Socks", "Heated Gear", "Mechanic's Wear", "Random Apparel", "Vests"]

Apply that function to the already sorted list, and then it will return a list of strings in the order (almost) that you want. Then add the list that was returned in order to the unordered list in the DOM.

Also, I haven't tested it with anything besides that list. So I'd do that if I were you. From what I see, it only works if the length of the list is a multiple of n. Not that great of a solution but it's late for me and I can't be bothered to come up with anything better.

EDIT: fixed the issue with the last element