Alphabetize a list using JS or jQuery

Question

I\'m trying to take the contents of a list, that is not in alphabetical order, then by adding each item to an array, sort them into alphabetical order and insert them back i

Answer 1

There's no need to generate an array here, you can use the sort() method directly on the jQuery object resulting from selecting the li elements. After sorting you can then append them back to the parent ul in the corrected order. Try this:

$("li").sort(function(a, b) {
    var aText = $(a).text(), bText = $(b).text();
    return aText < bText ? -1 : aText > bText ? 1 : 0;
}).appendTo('ul');

Updated fiddle

Also note that having duplicate id attributes in a document is invalid. Your #alphabet elements should be changed to use a class instead.