Sort array of objects by single key with date value

Question

I have an array of objects with several key value pairs, and I need to sort them based on \'updated_at\':

[
    {
        \"updated_at\" : \"2012-01-01T06:25         


        

Answer 1

With this we can pass a key function to use for the sorting

Array.prototype.sortBy = function(key_func, reverse=false){
    return this.sort( (a, b) => {
        var keyA = key_func(a),
            keyB = key_func(b);
        if(keyA < keyB) return reverse? 1: -1;
        if(keyA > keyB) return reverse? -1: 1;
        return 0;
    }); 
}

Then for example if we have

var arr = [ {date: "01/12/00", balls: {red: "a8",  blue: 10}},
            {date: "12/13/05", balls: {red: "d6" , blue: 11}},
            {date: "03/02/04", balls: {red: "c4" , blue: 15}} ]

We can do

arr.sortBy(el => el.balls.red)
/* would result in
[ {date: "01/12/00", balls: {red: "a8", blue: 10}},
  {date: "03/02/04", balls: {red: "c4", blue: 15}},
  {date: "12/13/05", balls: {red: "d6", blue: 11}} ]
*/

or

arr.sortBy(el => new Date(el.date), true)   // second argument to reverse it
/* would result in
[ {date: "12/13/05", balls: {red: "d6", blue:11}},
  {date: "03/02/04", balls: {red: "c4", blue:15}},
  {date: "01/12/00", balls: {red: "a8", blue:10}} ]
*/

or

arr.sortBy(el => el.balls.blue + parseInt(el.balls.red[1]))
/* would result in
[ {date: "12/13/05", balls: {red: "d6", blue:11}},    // red + blue= 17
  {date: "01/12/00", balls: {red: "a8", blue:10}},    // red + blue= 18
  {date: "03/02/04", balls: {red: "c4", blue:15}} ]   // red + blue= 19
*/

Answer 2

Here's a slightly modified version of @David Brainer-Bankers answer that sorts alphabetically by string, or numerically by number, and ensures that words beginning with Capital letters don't sort above words starting with a lower case letter (e.g "apple,Early" would be displayed in that order).

function sortByKey(array, key) {
    return array.sort(function(a, b) {
        var x = a[key];
        var y = b[key];

        if (typeof x == "string")
        {
            x = (""+x).toLowerCase(); 
        }
        if (typeof y == "string")
        {
            y = (""+y).toLowerCase();
        }

        return ((x < y) ? -1 : ((x > y) ? 1 : 0));
    });
}

Answer 3

With ES2015 support it can be done by:

foo.sort((a, b) => a.updated_at < b.updated_at ? -1 : 1)

Answer 4

Sorting by an ISO formatted date can be expensive, unless you limit the clients to the latest and best browsers, which can create the correct timestamp by Date-parsing the string.

If you are sure of your input, and you know it will always be yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss and GMT (Z) you can extract the digits from each member and compare them like integers

array.sort(function(a,b){
    return a.updated_at.replace(/\D+/g,'')-b.updated_at.replace(/\D+/g,'');
});

If the date could be formatted differently, you may need to add something for iso challenged folks:

Date.fromISO: function(s){
    var day, tz,
    rx=/^(\d{4}\-\d\d\-\d\d([tT ][\d:\.]*)?)([zZ]|([+\-])(\d\d):(\d\d))?$/,
    p= rx.exec(s) || [];
    if(p[1]){
        day= p[1].split(/\D/).map(function(itm){
            return parseInt(itm, 10) || 0;
        });
        day[1]-= 1;
        day= new Date(Date.UTC.apply(Date, day));
        if(!day.getDate()) return NaN;
        if(p[5]){
            tz= (parseInt(p[5], 10)*60);
            if(p[6]) tz+= parseInt(p[6], 10);
            if(p[4]== '+') tz*= -1;
            if(tz) day.setUTCMinutes(day.getUTCMinutes()+ tz);
        }
        return day;
    }
    return NaN;
}
if(!Array.prototype.map){
    Array.prototype.map= function(fun, scope){
        var T= this, L= T.length, A= Array(L), i= 0;
        if(typeof fun== 'function'){
            while(i< L){
                if(i in T){
                    A[i]= fun.call(scope, T[i], i, T);
                }
                ++i;
            }
            return A;
        }
    }
}
}

Answer 5

As This answer's states, you can use Array.sort.

arr.sort(function(a,b){return new Date(a.updated_at) - new Date(b.updated_at)})

arr = [
    {
        "updated_at" : "2012-01-01T06:25:24Z",
        "foo" : "bar"
    },
    {
        "updated_at" : "2012-01-09T11:25:13Z",
        "foo" : "bar"
    },
    {
        "updated_at" : "2012-01-05T04:13:24Z",
        "foo" : "bar"
    }
];
arr.sort(function(a,b){return new Date(a.updated_at) - new Date(b.updated_at)});
console.log(arr);

Answer 6

Just another, more mathematical, way of doing the same thing but shorter:

arr.sort(function(a, b){
    var diff = new Date(a.updated_at) - new Date(b.updated_at);
    return diff/(Math.abs(diff)||1);
});

or in the slick lambda arrow style:

arr.sort((a, b) => {
    var diff = new Date(a.updated_at) - new Date(b.updated_at);
    return diff/(Math.abs(diff)||1);
});

This method can be done with any numeric input