Question

I am allowing users to be able to sort either by price (int) or by distance (float).

I have an NSMutableArray of NSdictionary objects that store the data as follows:

({"asking_price" = 588832;
 distance = "2.0250673476224";
 id = 510cc41cc7e24c6c6d000000;
 "number_of_bathrooms" = 2; )}

my sort function is as follows:

+(void) sort:(NSMutableArray *)classifieds:(NSString *)key:(Boolean)isAscending
{

    NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:key ascending:isAscending];
    [classifieds sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor]];
}

My question is considering distance is a string in the dictionary and price is an int, how can I modify my function to actually do sorting it in floats when I pass in key of “distance” and in ints when I pass in a key of “asking_price”

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

+(void) sort:(NSMutableArray *)classifieds:(NSString *)key:(Boolean)isAscending
{
    NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
    if ([key isEqualToString:@"distance"])
    {
        sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:key ascending:isAscending comparator:^NSComparisonResult(id obj1, id obj2) {
            if ([obj1 floatValue] < [obj2 floatValue])
                return NSOrderedAscending;
            else
                return NSOrderedDescending;
        }];
    }
    else
    {
        sortDescriptor = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:key ascending:isAscending];
    }
    [classifieds sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor]];
}