jQuery order by date in data attribute

Question

If i have this markup:

item 1
item 1         


        

Answer 1

The custom function suggested in Joseph's answer (the currently accepted solution) should return a numeric value, not a boolean. See This other question where this issue has already been raised showing that this function will not work in IE.

The "dates.compare(a,b)" function defined here looks like a better fit for use in jQuery's sort method.