Sort array of objects by string property value

ghz 1years ago ⋅ 10022 views

Question

I have an array of JavaScript objects:

var objs = [ 
    { first_nom: 'Laszlo', last_nom: 'Jamf'     },
    { first_nom: 'Pig',    last_nom: 'Bodine'   },
    { first_nom: 'Pirate', last_nom: 'Prentice' }
];

How can I sort them by the value of last_nom in JavaScript?

I know about sort(a,b), but that only seems to work on strings and numbers. Do I need to add a toString() method to my objects?

Answer

It's easy enough to write your own comparison function:

function compare( a, b ) {
  if ( a.last_nom < b.last_nom ){
    return -1;
  }
  if ( a.last_nom > b.last_nom ){
    return 1;
  }
  return 0;
}

objs.sort( compare );

Or inline ([c/o Marco Demaio](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1129216/sort-array-of-objects-by- string-property-value/16174180#comment2298229_1129270)):

objs.sort((a,b) => (a.last_nom > b.last_nom) ? 1 : ((b.last_nom > a.last_nom) ? -1 : 0))

Or simplified for numeric ([c/o Andre Figueiredo](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1129216/sort-array-of-objects- by-string-property-value/16174180#comment31549267_1129270)):

objs.sort((a,b) => a.last_nom - b.last_nom); // b - a for reverse sort
#javascript