How can you sort an array without mutating the original array?

Question

Let\'s suppose I wanted a sort function that returns a sorted copy of the inputted array. I naively tried this

function sort(arr) {
  return arr.sort();
}
         


        

Answer 1

Anyone who wants to do a deep copy (e.g. if your array contains objects) can use:

let arrCopy = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(arr))

Then you can sort arrCopy without changing arr.

arrCopy.sort((obj1, obj2) => obj1.id > obj2.id)

Please note: this can be slow for very large arrays.