Sort an Html List with Javascript

You can try this

var ul = $(".list:first");
var arr = $.makeArray(ul.children("li"));

arr.sort(function(a, b) {
    var textA = +$(a).text();
    var textB = +$(b).text();

    if (textA < textB) return -1;
    if (textA > textB) return 1;

    return 0;
});

ul.empty();

$.each(arr, function() {
    ul.append(this);
});

Live example :

you can use this lightweight jquery plugin List.js cause

1. it's lightweight [only 3K script]
2. easy to implement in your existing HTML table using class
3. searchable, sortable and filterable

HTML

<div id="my-list">
    <ul class="list">
       <li>
           <h3 class="name">Luke</h3>
       </li>
       <li>
           <h3 class="name">John</h3>
       </li>
    </ul>
</div>

Javascript

var options = {
    valueNames: ['name']
};
var myList = new List('my-list', options);

There's also this small jQuery plugin. Which would make your sort nothing more than:

$('.list>li').tsort({attr:'id'});

This code will sort that list assuming there is only one .list item:

function sortList(selector) {
    var parent$ = $(selector);
    parent$.find("li").detach().sort(function(a, b) {
        return(Number(a.innerHTML) - Number(b.innerHTML));
    }).each(function(index, el) {
        parent$.append(el);
    });
}

sortList(".list");

You can see it work here:

To explain how it works:

1. It gets the .list parent object.
2. It finds all the <li> child objects.
3. It removes all the <li> child objects from the DOM, but preserves their data
4. It sorts the li objects using a custom sort function
5. The custom sort function gets the HTML in the li tag and converts it to a number
6. Then, traversing the array in the newly sorted order, each li tag is appended back onto the original parent.

The result is that they are displayed in sorted order.

Edit:

This improved version will even sort multiple list objects at once:

function sortList(selector) {
    $(selector).find("li").sort(function(a, b) {
        return(Number(a.innerHTML) - Number(b.innerHTML));
    }).each(function(index, el) {
        $(el).parent().append(el);
    });
}

sortList(".list");

Demo:

Non jquery version (vanilla javascript)

Benefits: the list is sorted in place, which doesn't destroy the LI's nor remove any events that may be associated with them. It just shuffles things around

Added an id to the UL:

<ul id="myList" class="list">
    <li id="alpha">32</li>
    <li id="beta">170</li>
    <li id="delta">28</li>
</ul>

and the vanilla javascript (no jquery)

// Grab a reference to the UL
var container = document.getElementById("myList");

// Gather all the LI's from the container
var contents = container.querySelectorAll("li");

// The querySelector doesn't return a traditional array
// that we can sort, so we'll need to convert the contents 
// to a normal array.
var list = [];
for(var i=0; i<contents.length; i++){
    list.push(contents[i]);
}

// Sort based on innerHTML (sorts "in place")
list.sort(function(a, b){
    var aa = parseInt(a.innerHTML);
    var bb = parseInt(b.innerHTML);
    return aa < bb ? -1 : (aa > bb ? 1 : 0);
});

// We'll reverse the array because our shuffle runs backwards
list.reverse();

// Shuffle the order based on the order of our list array.
for(var i=0; i<list.length; i++){
    console.log(list[i].innerHTML);
    container.insertBefore(list[i], container.firstChild);
}

And the fiddle proof:

You can use this method:

var mylist = $('ul');
var listitems = mylist.children('li').get();
listitems.sort(function(a, b) {
   var compA = $(a).text().toUpperCase();
   var compB = $(b).text().toUpperCase();
   return (compA < compB) ? -1 : (compA > compB) ? 1 : 0;
})
$.each(listitems, function(idx, itm) { mylist.append(itm); });

Check the article here:

Edit: There is a very cool jquery plugin that does that :

Something like this should help:

var $parent = $(".list");

$(".list li").sort(function (a, b) {
    return window.parseInt($(a).text(), 10) - window.parseInt($(b).text(), 10);
}).remove().each(function () {
    $parent.append($(this));
});

One method could be to sort an array (well, a jQuery object) of the li elements and replace the contents (using the html method) of the ul with the sorted array of elements:

$(".list").html($(".list li").sort(function(a, b) {
     return parseInt($(b).text(), 10) - parseInt($(a).text(), 10);    
}));

Here's a working example.

using jQuery for help:

var sortFunction = function(a, b) {
    return (+($(b).text())) - (+($(a).text()));
}
var lis = $('ul.list li');
lis = Array.prototype.sort.call(lis, sortFunction);

for (var i = 0; i < lis.length; i++) {
    $('ul.list').append(lis[i]);
}

Fiddle Link

Sort jQuery collection as usual array and then append each element back in correct order.

$(".list li").sort(function(a, b) {
    return parseInt($(b).text(), 10) - parseInt($(a).text(), 10);    
}).appendTo('.list');