sorting an ul list according to a li element with jquery?

Question

I\'m creating a horizontal list with < ul > element but what I want to do is to put each < ul > element in alphabetical order according to a < li > element. For exa

Answer 1

WORKING DEMO

$('.grid ul:gt(0)').each(function() {
    var txt1 = $(this).children('li:eq(1)').text();
    $(this).data('name', txt1);
});

var items = $('.grid ul');
items.sort(function(a, b) {
    var chA = $(a).data('name');
    var chB = $(b).data('name');
    if (chA < chB) return -1;
    if (chA > chB) return 1;
    return 0;
});
var grid = $('.grid');
$(grid).append(items);

and the HTML

<div class="grid">
    <ul class="list">
        <li>Name</li>
        <li>Surname</li>
        <li>Unit</li>
        <li>City</li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="list">
        <li>John</li>
        <li>Boe</li>
        <li>B.A.</li>
        <li>NY</li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="list">
        <li>Jane</li>
        <li>Doe</li>
        <li>M.A.</li>
        <li>CA</li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="list">
        <li>Lin</li>
        <li>Zyan</li>
        <li>M.A.</li>
        <li>OR</li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="list">
        <li>Matt</li>
        <li>Albright</li>
        <li>M.A.</li>
        <li>CA</li>
    </ul>
</div>

Will result in:

How it works:
We look for the text inside the desired li :eq()
and we set this text as a jQuery .data() for each UL element.
Than we just sort the ul by the retrieved .data() text - alphabetically!

Happy coding!