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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T19:28:33+00:00

I have a Javascript hash table, like so: var things = [ ]; things[hello]

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I have a Javascript hash table, like so:

var things = [ ];
things["hello"] = {"name" : "zzz I fell asleep", "number" : 7};
things["one"] = {"name" : "something", "number" : 18};
things["two"] = {"name" : "another thing", "number" : -2};

I want to sort these into order by name, so if I iterate through the hash table it will go in order

another thing
something
zzz I fell asleep

I tried doing this:

function compareThings(thing1, thing2) {
    var name1 = thing1["name"].toLowerCase();
    var name2 = thing2["name"].toLowerCase();
    if (name1 < name2) {
        return -1;
        }
    if (name1 > name2) {
        return 1;
        }
    return 0;
}

things.sort(compareThings);

But it doesn’t seem to work.

Edit: it occurs to me that perhaps a sorted hash table is an oxymoron. If so, what’s the best way to get access to a sorted list of the things here?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you want to iterate through a hash table in JavaScript in order, make an array, populate it with the hash keys, and then sort it.

    <html>
<body>
<pre>
  <script>
    var things = new Object ();
    things["hello"] = {"name" : "zzz I fell asleep", "number" : 7};
    things["one"] = {"name" : "something", "number" : 18};
    things["two"] = {"name" : "another thing", "number" : -2};
    var keys = [];
    for (var key in things) {
      if (things.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
        keys.push(key);
      }
    }
    keys.sort ();
    for (i in keys) {
      var key = keys[i];
      var value = things[key];
      document.write (key +"="+value+"\n");
    }
  </script>
</pre>
</body>
</html>
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