arraySort

> Functions

Sorts the list array according to the order defined by the callback function.

The elements are compared in pairs: the callback function must return a negative value, 0 or a positive value depending on whether the first value comes before, at the same level as, or after the second value.

The default order is:

All null elements
All numbers (from smallest to largest)
All booleans (false first, then true)
All strings (in alphabetical order)
All arrays (by increasing size).

In LS1, the default order is: numbers, booleans, arrays, null elements, then strings.

Example:

Parameters

array: Source list
callback: Sorting function.

Return

sortedArray: The sorted array

TypeScript

In JavaScript, sort() without a comparator sorts the elements as strings: [10, 9, 1] gives [1, 10, 9], not the numeric order of arraySort. Always pass a comparator for numbers: [...a].sort((x, y) => x - y), and (x, y) => y - x for descending order. sort sorts in place, hence the [...a] copy to get a new array as arraySort does; a.toSorted((x, y) => x - y) does both at once.

Python

In Python, sorted(a) returns a new sorted list, like arraySort. But there is no two-argument comparator: you sort by a key, sorted(a, key=len) or sorted(a, key=lambda e: e.life), and reverse=True reverses the order. To reuse a comparator that returns a negative, zero or positive number, wrap it: sorted(a, key=functools.cmp_to_key(comparator)). Sorting compares the elements with each other: a list mixing numbers and strings raises a TypeError.

Notes

In LS1-3, if the callback function takes 2 parameters, the two values are sent; if it takes 4, the key/value pairs are sent.

An arrow function makes this shorter to write, for example with the code above: