Sort array of objects in specific order

Question

I have an array of objects returning from an API call which I need to sort into a specific format.

I\'m trying to organise the destination_country_id alphab

Answer 1

Possibly not the most efficient method but it is ES3, doesn't require any libraries, and is fairly easy to understand. Also assuming you wanted to sort alphabetically on destination_country_name

Javascript

// where x is your array of objects
x.sort(function (a, b) {
    // sorts everything alphabetically
    return a.destination_country_name.localeCompare(b.destination_country_name);
}).sort(function (a, b) {
    // moves only this to country to top
    return +(!b.destination_country_name.localeCompare('United States'));
}).sort(function (a, b) {
    // moves only this to country to top
    return +(!b.destination_country_name.localeCompare('United Kingdom'));
}).sort(function (a, b) {
    // moves only this to country to top
    return +(!b.destination_country_name.localeCompare('Ireland'));
}).sort(function (a, b) {
    // moves only this to country to bottom
    return +(!a.destination_country_name.localeCompare('Everywhere Else'));
});

console.log(JSON.stringify(x, ['destination_country_name']));

Output

[{"destination_country_name":"Ireland"},
 {"destination_country_name":"United Kingdom"},
 {"destination_country_name":"United States"},
 {"destination_country_name":"France"},
 {"destination_country_name":"Spain"},
 {"destination_country_name":"Everywhere Else"}]

On jsFiddle

We could even go a step further and use the above example to make a reusable function, like.

Javascript

function sorter(array, funcs, orders) {
    funcs = funcs || {};
    orders = orders || {};
    array.sort(funcs.general);
    if (Array.isArray(orders.top)) {
        orders.top.slice().reverse().forEach(function(value) {
            array.sort(funcs.top.bind(value));
        });
    }

    if (Array.isArray(orders.bottom)) {
        orders.bottom.forEach(function(value) {
            array.sort(funcs.bottom.bind(value));
        });
    }

    return array;
}

sorter(x, {
    general: function (a, b) {
        return a.destination_country_name.localeCompare(b.destination_country_name);
    },
    top: function (a, b) {
        return +(!b.destination_country_name.localeCompare(this));
    },
    bottom: function (a, b) {
        return +(!a.destination_country_name.localeCompare(this));
    }
}, {
    top: ['Ireland', 'United Kingdom', 'United States'],
    bottom: ['Everywhere Else']
});

On jsFiddle

And now you can easily sort on different attributes by parsing in different compare functions, and define values that should be at the top or bottom.

I used ECMA5 methods but you could just as easily make it with ECMA3.