Sorting on a custom order

Question

I was wondering how I can sort an array on a custom order, not alphabetical. Imagine you have this array/object:

var somethingToSort = [{
    type: \"fruit\"         


        

Answer 1

Try this:

var sortOrder = ['fruit','candy','vegetable'];   // Declare a array that defines the order of the elements to be sorted.
somethingToSort.sort(
    function(a, b){                              // Pass a function to the sort that takes 2 elements to compare
        if(a.type == b.type){                    // If the elements both have the same `type`,
            return a.name.localeCompare(b.name); // Compare the elements by `name`.
        }else{                                   // Otherwise,
            return sortOrder.indexOf(a.type) - sortOrder.indexOf(b.type); // Substract indexes, If element `a` comes first in the array, the returned value will be negative, resulting in it being sorted before `b`, and vice versa.
        }
    }
);

Also, your object declaration is incorrect. Instead of:

{
    type = "fruit",
    name = "banana"
}, // etc

Use:

{
    type: "fruit",
    name: "banana"
}, // etc

So, replace the = signs with :'s.