Question

I have a set of tiles that display a certain number depending on which option is selected by the user. I would now like to implement a sort by whatever number is shown.

The code below shows how I’ve implemented it (by gettting/setting a value in the parent cards scope). Now, because the orderBy function takes a string, I tried to set a variable in the card scope called curOptionValue and sort by that, but it doesn’t seem to work.

So the question becomes, how to I create a custom sort function?

<div ng-controller="aggViewport" >
<div class="btn-group" >
    <button ng-click="setOption(opt.name)" ng-repeat="opt in optList" class="btn active">{{opt.name}}</button>
</div>
<div id="container" iso-grid width="500px" height="500px">
    <div ng-repeat="card in cards" class="item {{card.class}}" ng-controller="aggCardController">
        <table width="100%">
            <tr>
                <td align="center">
                    <h4>{{card.name}}</h4>
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td align="center"><h2>{{getOption()}}</h2></td>
            </tr>
        </table>        
    </div>
</div>

and controller :

module.controller('aggViewport',['$scope','$location',function($scope,$location) {
    $scope.cards = [
        {name: card1, values: {opt1: 9, opt2: 10}},
        {name: card1, values: {opt1: 9, opt2: 10}}
    ];

    $scope.option = "opt1";

    $scope.setOption = function(val){
        $scope.option = val;
    }

}]);

module.controller('aggCardController',['$scope',function($scope){
    $scope.getOption = function(){
        return $scope.card.values[$scope.option];
    }
}]);

Answer 1

Actually the orderBy filter can take as a parameter not only a string but also a function. From the orderBy documentation: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/filter/orderBy):

function: Getter function. The result of this function will be sorted
using the <, =, > operator.

So, you could write your own function. For example, if you would like to compare cards based on a sum of opt1 and opt2 (I’m making this up, the point is that you can have any arbitrary function) you would write in your controller:

$scope.myValueFunction = function(card) {
   return card.values.opt1 + card.values.opt2;
};

and then, in your template:

ng-repeat="card in cards | orderBy:myValueFunction"

Here is the working jsFiddle

The other thing worth noting is that orderBy is just one example of AngularJS filters so if you need a very specific ordering behaviour you could write your own filter (although orderBy should be enough for most uses cases).