Sorting Javascript array with strings and numbers

Question

I have a list of elements in an array in Javascript as follows:

myArray = ["Datastore one - free space 34.23GB", "Datastore two - free space 56.23GB",...]

and so on. I would like to sort the array on the freespace, so in the example above Datastore two would be the first element in the array. The array is always constructed with "- free space xx.xxGB", but the free space could be 5 digits in some cases, so xxx.xxGB for example.

Can anyone help provide a way of sorting the array please? I see I can use something like

"*- free space\s[1-9][0-9]*GB"

So would this be like

myArray.sort("*- free space\s[1-9][0-9]*GB") ?

Is this correct or how would I do this? Many thanks in advance.

Paul Roub · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-08 20:31:47Z

2

Pull the numeric parts out in a custom sort function, and subtract:

myArray = ["Datastore one - free space 34.23GB", "Datastore two - free space 56.23GB", "Datastore three - free space 6.23GB" ];

var re = /([0-9\.]+)GB/;  // regex to retrieve the GB values

myArray = myArray.sort(
    function(a, b) {
      var ma = a.match(re);  // grab GB value from each string
      var mb = b.match(re);   // the result is an array, with the number at pos [1]
      
      return (ma[1] - mb[1]);  
    }
  );

alert(myArray.join("\r\n"));

answered Oct 8, 2014 at 20:31

Paul Roub

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1 Comment

hindmost Over a year ago

This is better: var re = /free space (\d+(?:\.\d+|))/

Rob M. · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-08 20:31:11Z

1

This should do the trick:

myArray.sort(function compare(a, b) {
  var size1 = parseFloat(a.replace(/[^0-9\.]/g, ''));
  var size2 = parseFloat(b.replace(/[^0-9\.]/g, ''));
  if (size1 < size2) {
    return -1;
  } else if (size1 > size2) {
    return 1;
  }
  return 0;
});

Array.prototype.sort does not accept a regex, it accepts a callback or will do its best to sort your array based on numeric/alphabetical order if you don't pass a callback

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/sort

answered Oct 8, 2014 at 20:31

Rob M.

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3 Comments

soktinpk Over a year ago

What about return size1 - size2

Rob M. Over a year ago

Sure, that works fine and is more succinct, but seeing as the asker was showing an incomplete knowledge of the sort function I figured I'd be verbose.

Oli Over a year ago

Thank you! That definitely helps me.

Austin · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-08 20:38:18Z

This should work as well if you just want the numbers returned.

I split the string by spaces and grab the last section. (#GB), I then grab the substring of everything but the last two characters (so I chop off the GB), I then use the Javascript function to sort the remaining numbers.

JSFiddle Demo

window.onload = function() {
   myArray = ["Datastore one - free space 34.23GB", "Datastore two - free space 56.23GB", "Datastore two - free space 16.23GB", "Datastore two - free space 6.23GB"];
    for (i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++) 
    { 
      var output  = myArray[i].split(" ").pop(); 
      output = output.substring(0, output.length-2);
      myArray[i] = output;
    }
   myArray.sort(function(a, b){return a-b});
   alert(myArray);
};

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