Sort an Array of Strings by their Integer Values

Question

Let\'s say I have an unsorted array from 1 to 10, as shown below...

a = ["3", "5", "8", "4", "1", "2",         


        

Answer 1

If you convert all strings to integers beforehand, it should work as expected:

a.map(&:to_i).sort
=> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Answer 2

The cheap way would be to zero fill on the left and make all numbers 2 digit.

Answer 3

I'll throw another method out there since it's the shortest way I can think of

a.sort_by(&:to_i)

Answer 4

Another option, that can be used in your example or others arrays like

a = ["teste", "test", "teste2", "tes3te", "10teste"]

is:

a.sort_by! {|s| s[/\d+/].to_i}

Answer 5

a.sort { |a,b| a.to_i <=> b.to_i }

Answer 6

The reason for this behavior is that you have an array of strings and the sort that is being applied is string-based. To get the proper, numeric, sorting you have to convert the strings to numbers or just keep them as numbers in the first place. Is there a reason that your array is being populate with strings like this:

a = ["3", "5", "8", "4", "1", "2", "9", "10", "7", "6"]

Rather than numbers like this:

a = [3, 5, 8, 4, 1, 2, 9, 1, 7, 6]

?