Question

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Why is sorting modifing the original in this case?

I have 2 arrays. I want to set the second variable to the sorted version of the first.

var _myArray = ["N","T","A","W","Z","X"];
var _array02 = _myArray.sort();

document.write(_myArray+'<br>'+_array02);

What should happen: N,T,A,W,N,X<br>A,N,T,W,X,Z

What happens instead: A,N,T,W,X,Z<br>A,N,T,W,X,Z

Is this by design in JS, and if so, how do I achieve what I want?

Answer 1

sort() sorts the array in place. Sort a copy, if you want the original array unchanged:

var _myArray = ["N","T","A","W","Z","X"];
var _array02 = _myArray.slice().sort();

_myArray +'\n'+_array02

/*  returned value: (String)
N,T,A,W,Z,X
A,N,T,W,X,Z
*/