Sort arrays containing any data type by given field(s)!

Installation

npm: npm i -s sortilege

yarn: yarn add sortilege

unpkg: https://unpkg.com/sortilege

Usage

Sortilege is a function which accepts an array to sort and an optional options object and returns a sorted array.

const sorted = sortilege(array[, options])

The most basic example is about sorting a simple array of strings. It sorts in ascending order by default:

import sort from "sortilege";

const simpleArray = ["pineapple", "apple", "banana", "pear"];

return sort(simpleArray);
// ["apple","banana","pear","pinapple"];

If an array of objects is passed in, when no options are specified, sortilege uses the first non-object field it finds traversing the tree.

const users = [
  { user: { name: "luke", age: 32 } },
  { user: { name: "andrew", age: 40 } },
  { user: { name: "mary", age: 43 } },
  { user: { name: "andrew", age: 29 } }
];

return sort(users);
// the field [name] is used to sort
// [
// { user: { name: "andrew", age: 43 } },
// { user: { name: "andrew", age: 29 } },
// { user: { name: "luke", age: 32 } },
// { user: { name: "mary", age: 43 } },
// ];

If an array of arrays is passed in, sortilege uses the 0th element of the children arrays to sort by.

const users = [
  ["Mark", "Ross", 30, "Student"],
  ["Paul", "White", 29, "Student"],
  ["Jessica", "Bishop", 32, "Artist"]
];

return sort(users);
// the element with index 0 is used to sort by
// [
// ["Jessica", "Bishop", 32, "Artist"]
// ["Mark", "Ross", 30, "Student"],
// ["Paul", "White", 29, "Student"],
// ]

Options

The options object is optional and has the following structure:

const options = {
  sortDir: string, // specifies the direction of sort. Possible values are ASC (default) and DESC
  sortBy: string | array[string], // specifies the field(s) to sort by. See above for more details.
  throwError: bool // specifies whether or not an error has to be thrown in case of issues
};

sortDir

With sortDir you can specify the sort direction. It accepts both "ASC" and "DESC". By default it is set to "ASC".

const users = [
  { user: { name: "luke", age: 32 } },
  { user: { name: "andrew", age: 40 } },
  { user: { name: "mary", age: 43 } },
  { user: { name: "andrew", age: 29 } }
];

return sort(users, { sortDir: "DESC" });
// the field [name] is used to sort
// [
// { user: { name: "luke", age: 32 } },
// { user: { name: "mary", age: 43 } },
// { user: { name: "andrew", age: 40 } },
// { user: { name: "andrew", age: 29 } }
// ];

In the previous example our array is sorted, in descending order, by the first valuable field which is name.

sortBy

Specifies the field(s) the array is sorted by.

It must refer to non-object and non-array field. It can have the following formats.

Single field

It finds the field specified inside the object and sort by it.

sortBy: "field";

Example:

const users = [
  { id: 1, name: "luke", age: 32 },
  { id: 2, name: "andrew", age: 40 },
  { id: 3, name: "mary", age: 43 },
  { id: 4, name: "andrew", age: 29 }
];

return sort(users, { sortBy: "age", sortDir: "DESC" });
// [
// { id: 3, name: "mary", age: 43 },
// { id: 2, name: "andrew", age: 40 },
// { id: 1, name: "luke", age: 32 },
// { id: 4, name: "andrew", age: 29 },
// ]

It is possible to use . to access fields on nested objects. In this case just the last field in the path has to be a non-object and non-array type. It is recursive so there is no limit to the nesting levels.

sortBy: "field.subfield";

Example:

const users = [
  { id: 1, name: "luke", address: { city: { name: "Manchester", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 2, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Berlin", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 3, name: "mary", address: { city: { name: "Paris", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 4, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Bruxelles", zipCode: "" } } }
];

return sort(users, { sortBy: "address.city.name", sortDir: "DESC" });
// [
// { id: 3, name: "mary", address: { city:{ name: "Paris", zipCode: "" } } },
// { id: 1, name: "luke", address: { city:{ name: "Manchester", zipCode: "" } } },
// { id: 4, name: "andrew", address: { city:{ name: "Bruxelles", zipCode: "" } } },
// { id: 2, name: "andrew", address: { city:{ name: "Berlin", zipCode: "" } } },
// ]

In case of array of arrays, sortBy can specify the index of the element the array has to be sort by.

const users = [
  ["Mark", "Ross", 30, "Student"],
  ["Paul", "White", 29, "Student"],
  ["Jessica", "Bishop", 32, "Artist"]
];

return sort(users, { sortBy: "2", sortDir: "DESC" });
// [
// ["Jessica", "Bishop", 32, "Artist"],
// ["Mark", "Ross", 30, "Student"],
// ["Paul", "White", 29, "Student"],
// ]

Multiple fields

It is possible to sort by multiple fields. To accomplish this, you can pass to sortBy an array of fields. The order in the array is important: the leftmost field is the most important in the sort, the rightmost the less important.

sortBy: ["field1", "field2", "field3.subfield"];

Example:

const users = [
  { id: 1, name: "luke", address: { city: { name: "Paris", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 2, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Bruxelles", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 3, name: "mary", address: { city: { name: "Manchester", zipCode: "" } } },
  { id: 4, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Berlin", zipCode: "" } } }
];

return sort(users, { sortBy: ["name", "address.city.name"] });
// [
// { id: 4, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Berlin", zipCode: "" } } }
// { id: 2, name: "andrew", address: { city: { name: "Bruxelles", zipCode: "" } } },
// { id: 1, name: "luke", address: { city: { name: "Paris", zipCode: "" } } },
// { id: 3, name: "mary", address: { city: { name: "Manchester", zipCode: "" } } },
// ]

throwError

If throwError is set to false (default), in case of error sortilege fails silently and returns the passed array as is. When throwError is set to true instead, an Error is thrown. Example:

const inconsistentUsers = [
  { id: 1, name: "luke", age: 32 },
  { id: 2, age: 40 },
  { id: 3, name: "mary", age: 43 },
  { id: 4, name: "andrew", age: 29 }
];

return sort(inconsistentUsers, {
  sortBy: "name",
  sortDir: "DESC",
  throwError: true
});
// Error: "Specified sortBy (name) has not been found on item { id: 2, age: 40 }"

Changelog

CHANGES.md

License

MIT © Dario Rinaldi & Emiliano Costanzo