Reverse sort order with Backbone.js

Question

With Backbone.js I\'ve got a collection set up with a comparator function. It\'s nicely sorting the models, but I\'d like to reverse the order.

How can I sort the m

Answer 1

This can be done elegantly by overriding sortBy method. Here is an example

var SortedCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({

   initialize: function () {
       // Default sort field and direction
       this.sortField = "name";
       this.sortDirection = "ASC";
   },

   setSortField: function (field, direction) {
       this.sortField = field;
       this.sortDirection = direction;
   },

   comparator: function (m) {
       return m.get(this.sortField);
   },

   // Overriding sortBy (copied from underscore and just swapping left and right for reverse sort)
   sortBy: function (iterator, context) {
       var obj = this.models,
           direction = this.sortDirection;

       return _.pluck(_.map(obj, function (value, index, list) {
           return {
               value: value,
               index: index,
               criteria: iterator.call(context, value, index, list)
           };
       }).sort(function (left, right) {
           // swap a and b for reverse sort
           var a = direction === "ASC" ? left.criteria : right.criteria,
               b = direction === "ASC" ? right.criteria : left.criteria;

           if (a !== b) {
               if (a > b || a === void 0) return 1;
               if (a < b || b === void 0) return -1;
           }
           return left.index < right.index ? -1 : 1;
       }), 'value');
   }

});

So you can use it like this:

var collection = new SortedCollection([
  { name: "Ida", age: 26 },
  { name: "Tim", age: 5 },
  { name: "Rob", age: 55 }
]);

//sort by "age" asc
collection.setSortField("age", "ASC");
collection.sort();

//sort by "age" desc
collection.setSortField("age", "DESC");
collection.sort();

This solution does not depend on the field type.