Sorting Json (By Specific Element) Alphabetically

Question

I have some JSON that is formatted like:

places =[
     {
      "city":"Los Angeles",
      "country":"USA",
     },
     {
      "city":"Boston",
      "country":"USA",
     },
     {
      "city":"Chicago",
      "country":"USA",
     },
]

et cetera...

I am trying to sort this alphabetically BY CITY and am having trouble doing so. I believe the root of my issue seems to be determining the order of the characters (versus numbers). I've tried a simple:

    places.sort(function(a,b) {
     return(a.city) - (b.customInfo.city);
    });

yet, this subtraction doesnt know what to do. Can someone help me out?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately there is no generic "compare" function in JavaScript to return a suitable value for sort(). I'd write a compareStrings function that uses comparison operators and then use it in the sort function.

function compareStrings(a, b) {
  // Assuming you want case-insensitive comparison
  a = a.toLowerCase();
  b = b.toLowerCase();

  return (a < b) ? -1 : (a > b) ? 1 : 0;
}

places.sort(function(a, b) {
  return compareStrings(a.city, b.city);
})

Answer 2

Matti's solution is correct, but you can write it more simply. You don't need the extra function call; you can put the logic directly in the sort callback.

For case-insensitive sorting:

places.sort( function( a, b ) {
    a = a.city.toLowerCase();
    b = b.city.toLowerCase();

    return a < b ? -1 : a > b ? 1 : 0;
});

For case-sensitive sorting:

places.sort( function( a, b ) {
    return a.city < b.city ? -1 : a.city > b.city ? 1 : 0;
});

Sorting Json (By Specific Element) Alphabetically

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Sorting Json (By Specific Element) Alphabetically

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David Miller