Question

I need to write a common sort function. I am using jQuery for sorting. jQuery sort function only accepts two parameters as input. But I want to pass another parameter to that function. How can I do that?

Something like this:

 obj.sort(StringSort);
 obj2.sort(StringSort);

 function StringSort(a, b, desc)
 {
    var aText = $(a).attr(desc).toLowerCase();
    var bText = $(b).attr(desc).toLowerCase();

    if(aText == bText)
      return 0;

    return aText > bText ? 1 : -1;
 }

Answer 1

You can create a function that returns a function. The outer function accepts the additional argument and you use the returned function as sorting callback:

function getStringSort(desc) {
    return function(a, b) {
        // this is a closure, you can access desc here
        // this function should contain your comparison logic or you just 
        // call StringSort here passing a, b  and desc.
    }
}

obj.sort(getStringSort(someValue));

The inner function has access to all parameters of the outer function since it is a closure ^[MDN].