How do you sort an array on multiple columns?

Question

I have a multidimensional array. The primary array is an array of

[publicationID][publication_name][ownderID][owner_name] 

What I am tryin

Answer 1

If owner names differ, sort by them. Otherwise, use publication name for tiebreaker.

function mysortfunction(a, b) {

  var o1 = a[3].toLowerCase();
  var o2 = b[3].toLowerCase();

  var p1 = a[1].toLowerCase();
  var p2 = b[1].toLowerCase();

  if (o1 < o2) return -1;
  if (o1 > o2) return 1;
  if (p1 < p2) return -1;
  if (p1 > p2) return 1;
  return 0;
}

Answer 2

I suggest to use a built in comparer and chain the wanted sort order with logical or ||.

function customSort(a, b) {
    return a[3].localeCompare(b[3]) || a[1].localeCompare(b[1]);
}

Working example:

var array = [
    [0, 'Aluminium', 0, 'Francis'],
    [1, 'Argon', 1, 'Ada'],
    [2, 'Brom', 2, 'John'],
    [3, 'Cadmium', 3, 'Marie'],
    [4, 'Fluor', 3, 'Marie'],
    [5, 'Gold', 1, 'Ada'],
    [6, 'Kupfer', 4, 'Ines'],
    [7, 'Krypton', 4, 'Joe'],
    [8, 'Sauerstoff', 3, 'Marie'],
    [9, 'Zink', 5, 'Max']
];

array.sort(function (a, b) {
    return a[3].localeCompare(b[3]) || a[1].localeCompare(b[1]);
});

document.write('<pre>');
array.forEach(function (a) {
    document.write(JSON.stringify(a) + '<br>');
});

Answer 3

function multiSort() {

    var args =$.makeArray( arguments ),
        sortOrder=1, prop='', aa='',  b='';

    return function (a, b) {

       for (var i=0; i<args.length; i++){

         if(args[i][0]==='-'){
            prop=args[i].substr(1)
            sortOrder=-1
         }
         else{sortOrder=1; prop=args[i]}

         aa = a[prop].toLowerCase()
         bb = b[prop].toLowerCase()

         if (aa < bb) return -1 * sortOrder;
         if (aa > bb) return 1 * sortOrder;

       }

       return 0
    }

}
empArray.sort(multiSort( 'lastname','firstname')) Reverse with '-lastname'

Answer 4

I think what you're looking for is thenBy.js: https://github.com/Teun/thenBy.js

It allows you to use the standard Array.sort, but with firstBy().thenBy().thenBy() style.

An example can be seen here.

Answer 5

This is handy for alpha sorts of all sizes. Pass it the indexes you want to sort by, in order, as arguments.

Array.prototype.deepSortAlpha= function(){
    var itm, L=arguments.length, order=arguments;

    var alphaSort= function(a, b){
        a= a.toLowerCase();
        b= b.toLowerCase();
        if(a== b) return 0;
        return a> b? 1:-1;
    }
    if(!L) return this.sort(alphaSort);

    this.sort(function(a, b){
        var tem= 0,  indx=0;
        while(tem==0 && indx<L){
            itm=order[indx];
            tem= alphaSort(a[itm], b[itm]); 
            indx+=1;        
        }
        return tem;
    });
    return this;
}

var arr= [[ "Nilesh","Karmshil"], ["Pranjal","Deka"], ["Susants","Ghosh"],
["Shiv","Shankar"], ["Javid","Ghosh"], ["Shaher","Banu"], ["Javid","Rashid"]];

arr.deepSortAlpha(1,0);

Answer 6

I found multisotr. This is simple, powerfull and small library for multiple sorting. I was need to sort an array of objects with dynamics sorting criteria:

const criteria = ['name', 'speciality']
const data = [
  { name: 'Mike', speciality: 'JS', age: 22 },
  { name: 'Tom', speciality: 'Java', age: 30 },
  { name: 'Mike', speciality: 'PHP', age: 40 },
  { name: 'Abby', speciality: 'Design', age: 20 },
]

const sorted = multisort(data, criteria)

console.log(sorted)

<script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/peterkhayes/multisort/master/multisort.js"></script>

This library more mutch powerful, that was my case. Try it.