Question

Im having trouble sorting a multidimensional array in ruby and can’t find any question similar to my problem. I have an array/hash or both? (excuse me as im coming from a c/php/java background and this is my first time using Ruby)

user['shapeshifter'] = {age => '25', country => 'Australia'}
user['user2'] = {age => '29', country => 'Australia'}
user['user3'] = {age => '21', country => 'Russia'}

i want to sort the user array based on age.

Answer 1

You need a hash of hashes, and ruby 1.9.2 for sorted hashes, IIRC. This was covered in Sort hash by key, return hash in Ruby

Assuming your test case, fixed so it is valid:

user = {}
user['shapeshifter'] = {:age => 25, :country => 'Australia'}
user['user2'] = {:age => 29, :country => 'Australia'}
user['user3'] = {:age => 21, :country => 'Russia'}

All it takes is:

user.sort_by {|key,value| value[:age]}