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Nanthini Ammu
Nanthini Ammu

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Array Sort Methods

sort() :

  • It is used to arrange elements of an array.
  • It modifies the original array.
  • By default, the sort() method converts all elements into strings and sorts them in ascending order based on their Unicode values.
  • Works perfectly for strings.
  • For numbers, the default comparator converts elements to strings, which causes unexpected results with numbers. So we must provide a compare function as an argument. The function compares two elements (a and b) and returns a value. Negative value: a is placed before b. Positive value: b is placed before a. Zero: The relative order remains unchanged.

const fruits = ["Apple","Orange","Banana","Papaya","Guava"]
fruits.sort();
console.log(fruits);

const numberz = [10, 9, 2, 1, 100]
numberz.sort();
console.log(numberz); // without compare function  [1, 10, 100, 2, 9]. Because elements are converted into string first.

const numberz2 = [10, 9, 2, 1, 100]
numberz2.sort((a,b)=>a-b);
console.log(numberz2);

const numberz3 = [10, 9, 2, 1, 100]
numberz2.sort((a,b)=>b-a);
console.log(numberz3);


Output :
['Apple', 'Banana', 'Guava', 'Orange', 'Papaya']
[1, 10, 100, 2, 9]
[1, 2, 9, 10, 100]
[100, 10, 9, 2, 1]

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

Also Array.toSorted if you don't want to modify the original.