JSON object sort in Javascript

Question

I have a JSON object jobj=JSON.parse(jsnstr) array returned by JSON.parse and I wish to sort it by its name. I have used

jobj=$(jobj).sort(sortfunction);
 function sortfunction(a,b){  
     return a.name.toLowerCase() > b.name.toLowerCase() ? 1 : -1;  
 };  

But this didnt work out instead i am getting undefined obj any help?

Answer 1

You can't sort a hash; it must be an array. What you can do is setup the reference of each a.name value to an array and then sort that array with a custom function like you have up there.

json = JSON.parse(...);
var refs = [];
for(var i in json) {
  var name = i.name;
  refs.push({
    name : name.toLowerCase(),
    object : i
  });
}

var sorted = refs.sort(function(a,b) {
  return a.name > b.name;
});

Now everything in your refs array is sorted and you can access each object individually by sorted[index].object.

Answer 2

I think you meant to write this:

jobj=$(jobj).sort(function(a,b){  
     return a.name.toLowerCase() > b.name.toLowerCase() ? 1 : -1;  
});

Answer 3

You don't need jQuery for this. Also, sort modifies the original array. So, if jobj is an array, you can just do:

jobj.sort(sortfunction);

You may also want to account for the case where a.name and b.name are the same:

function sortfunction(a,b){  
    var aSort = a.name.toLowerCase(),
        bSort = b.name.toLowerCase();
    if(aSort === bSort) return 0;
    return aSort > bSort ? 1 : -1;  
}

DEMO: http://jsfiddle.net/xmmPL/