Question

I am not using an associative array. I’m using 1d array like this,

array("1,a","5,b","2,c","8,d","6,f");

How can I sort this array?

The result should be,

array("1,a","2,c","5,b","6,f","8,d");

Answer 1

I’m going to go ahead and assume you want to sort by the number part first, sorting numerically, and then have a secondary lexographic (string) sort on the bit after the comma. That way a value like “11,a” will end up after “2,a” – if you just do a default sort “11,a” will end up before “2,a”. So:

var a = ["1,a","11,a","8,a","24,z","5,b","2,c","8,d","6,f"];

a.sort(function(a,b) {
   var aparts = a.split(","),
       bparts = b.split(","),
       anum = +aparts[0], // convert first part to number
       bnum = +bparts[0],
       aletter = aparts[1],
       bletter = bparts[1];

   if (anum === bnum)
      return aletter < bletter ? -1 : aletter === bletter ? 0 : -1;
   else
      return anum - bnum;
});

Result:

["1,a", "2,c", "5,b", "6,f", "8,a", "8,d", "11,a", "24,z"]