Javascript sort multidimensional object

Question

So I know that there are dozens of posts on here that describe how to sort a multidimensional object, but I have not been able to find one that fits my needs.

All those solutions are based on an object like this:

[{id: 1, value: 'aaa'},{id: 40, value: 'bbbb'}]

My object looks like this:

buttons: {
    confirm: {
        class: 'btn btn-primary',
        value: 'Opslaan',
        order: 1
    },
    cancel: {
        class: 'btn btn-default',
        value: 'Annuleer',
        order: 10
    }
    delete: {
        class: 'btn btn-danger',
        value: 'Verwijder',
        order: 2
    }
},

Naturally, I want to sort this so that the outcome is: confirm, delete, cancel. I have tried this (which I expected not to work):

this.options.buttons.sort ( function ( a, b ) {
    return a.order - b.order;
});

But that gave me an Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function

Any help is much appreciated!

It is as simple as: An object does not have sort() and objects do not guarantee order. — epascarello
– epascarello, Commented May 6, 2014 at 16:05
Sometimes this website make me feel like an idiot.. haha. But does that mean that there is no way to achieve my outcome? Except for changing it to an array? — Diederik
– Diederik, Commented May 6, 2014 at 16:07
@DiederikvandenB Technically, there are probably ways you could sort an object (Object.keys, which will then let you sort that array, and then you could reconstruct your object). However, objects are unsorted based on the ECMA spec (see: ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm) so no guarantee can be made that the object will stay sorted to your liking. Your far better off converting the buttons property to an array. — Jason L.
– Jason L., Commented May 6, 2014 at 16:15

willwclo · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-06 18:43:22Z

5

As @epascarello mentions, there is no native sort function for objects in JavaScript.

If you are interested in sorting an array of your object's keys according to some order, you can use Object.keys()!

var buttons = {
  confirm: { value: 'foo', order: 0 },
  cancel: { value: 'bar', order: 2},
  delete: { value: 'baz', order: 1}
};

var sortedButtons = Object.keys(buttons).sort( function(keyA, keyB) {
  return buttons[keyA].order - buttons[keyB].order;
}); // returns ['confirm', 'delete', 'cancel']

answered May 6, 2014 at 18:43

willwclo

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1 Comment

Diederik Over a year ago

Despite the fact that I changed the system to an array approach, I feel like this answer should be marked as the best solution, since it might help others. The new array can than be used to loop through (using $.each() for example), and then the original values from the object can be called.

Jeremy J Starcher · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-06 16:14:33Z

I had a very similar need and I ended up doing something along these lines --

// Code typed on the fly -- untested.
buttons: {
    list: [],  // We'll store things here.
    confirm: {
        class: 'btn btn-primary',
        value: 'Opslaan',
        order: 1
    },
    cancel: {
        class: 'btn btn-default',
        value: 'Annuleer',
        order: 10
    }
    delete: {
        class: 'btn btn-danger',
        value: 'Verwijder',
        order: 2
    }
}


// Now, fill the list from the properties

for (var key in buttons) {
  // Don't actually use the 'list' property in the output
  if (key !== "list") {
    list.push(key);
  }
}

// Now that we have our list, sort it
// Any specialized sorting can be done in the `sort` method here
buttons.list = buttons.list.sort();

// Now, deal with the sorted list
for (var i = 0; i < buttons.list.length; i++) {
  var key = buttons.list[i];
  var button = buttons[key];
  console.log(button);
}

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