JavaScript sort array by multiple (number) fields

43
votes

How can I implement a

 ORDER BY sort1 DESC, sort2 DESC

logic in an JSON array like such:

    var items = '[
          {
            "sort1": 1,
            "sort2": 3,
            "name" : "a",
          },
          {
            "sort1": 1,
            "sort2": 2,
            "name" : "b",
          },
          {
            "sort1": 2,
            "sort2": 1,
            "name" : "c",
          }
    ]';

resulting in the new order :

b,a,c
3
javascriptjsonsorting
Why are you putting your Array syntax inside (broken) string literal syntax? - I Hate Lazy
I'm using JSON like this, is there a better way? - coiso
Since you're assigning the Array to the items variable, you're already in a JavaScript environment, so it doesn't make too much sense to first represent it as JSON markup, then parse it. If that was meant to represent JSON markup being sent from the server, then a better representation is to get rid of the extra var items = ...; syntax, and just show it as markup with a note explaining that it's your server side markup. - I Hate Lazy
Possible duplicate of Sort by two values prioritizing on one of them - Boris Yakubchik

3 Answers

103
votes

You should design your sorting function accordingly:

items.sort(function(a, b) {
  return a.sort1 - b.sort1  ||  a.sort2 - b.sort2;
});

(because || operator has lower precedence than - one, it's not necessary to use parenthesis here).

The logic is simple: if a.sort1 - b.sort1 expression evaluates to 0 (so these properties are equal), it will proceed with evaluating || expression - and return the result of a.sort2 - b.sort2.

As a sidenote, your items is actually a string literal, you have to JSON.parse to get an array:

const itemsStr = `[{
    "sort1": 1,
    "sort2": 3,
    "name": "a"
  },
  {
    "sort1": 1,
    "sort2": 2,
    "name": "b"
  },
  {
    "sort1": 2,
    "sort2": 1,
    "name": "c"
  }
]`;
const items = JSON.parse(itemsStr);
items.sort((a, b) => a.sort1 - b.sort1 || a.sort2 - b.sort2);
console.log(items);
8
votes

You can avoid hardcoding by create a general function

function sortByMultipleKey(keys) {
    return function(a, b) {
        if (keys.length == 0) return 0; // force to equal if keys run out
        key = keys[0]; // take out the first key
        if (a[key] < b[key]) return -1; // will be 1 if DESC
        else if (a[key] > b[key]) return 1; // will be -1 if DESC
        else return sortByMultipleKey(keys.slice(1))(a, b);
    }
}

Running 

items.sort(sortByMultipleKey(['sort1', 'sort2']));

will have you 

[ { sort1: 1, sort2: 2, name: 'b' },
  { sort1: 1, sort2: 3, name: 'a' },
  { sort1: 2, sort2: 1, name: 'c' } ]
0
votes

const itemsStr = `[{
    "sort1": 1,
    "sort2": 3,
    "name": "a"
  },
  {
    "sort1": 1,
    "sort2": 2,
    "name": "b"
  },
  {
    "sort1": 2,
    "sort2": 1,
    "name": "c"
  }
]`;
const items = JSON.parse(itemsStr);
items.sort((a, b) => a.sort1 - b.sort1 || a.sort2 - b.sort2);
console.log(items);