How may I sort a list alphabetically using jQuery?

Question

Something like this:

var mylist = $('#myUL');
var listitems = mylist.children('li').get();
listitems.sort(function(a, b) {
   return $(a).text().toUpperCase().localeCompare($(b).text().toUpperCase());
})
$.each(listitems, function(idx, itm) { mylist.append(itm); });

From this page: http://www.onemoretake.com/2009/02/25/sorting-elements-with-jquery/

Above code will sort your unordered list with id 'myUL'.

OR you can use a plugin like TinySort. https://github.com/Sjeiti/TinySort

You do not need jQuery to do this...

function sortUnorderedList(ul, sortDescending) {
  if(typeof ul == "string")
    ul = document.getElementById(ul);

  // Idiot-proof, remove if you want
  if(!ul) {
    alert("The UL object is null!");
    return;
  }

  // Get the list items and setup an array for sorting
  var lis = ul.getElementsByTagName("LI");
  var vals = [];

  // Populate the array
  for(var i = 0, l = lis.length; i < l; i++)
    vals.push(lis[i].innerHTML);

  // Sort it
  vals.sort();

  // Sometimes you gotta DESC
  if(sortDescending)
    vals.reverse();

  // Change the list on the page
  for(var i = 0, l = lis.length; i < l; i++)
    lis[i].innerHTML = vals[i];
}

Easy to use...

sortUnorderedList("ID_OF_LIST");

Live Demo →

$(".list li").sort(asc_sort).appendTo('.list');
//$("#debug").text("Output:");
// accending sort
function asc_sort(a, b){
    return ($(b).text()) < ($(a).text()) ? 1 : -1;    
}

// decending sort
function dec_sort(a, b){
    return ($(b).text()) > ($(a).text()) ? 1 : -1;    
}

live demo : http://jsbin.com/eculis/876/edit

To make this work work with all browsers including Chrome you need to make the callback function of sort() return -1,0 or 1.

see http://inderpreetsingh.com/2010/12/01/chromes-javascript-sort-array-function-is-different-yet-proper/

function sortUL(selector) {
    $(selector).children("li").sort(function(a, b) {
        var upA = $(a).text().toUpperCase();
        var upB = $(b).text().toUpperCase();
        return (upA < upB) ? -1 : (upA > upB) ? 1 : 0;
    }).appendTo(selector);
}
sortUL("ul.mylist");

If you are using jQuery you can do this:

$(function() {

  var $list = $("#list");

  $list.children().detach().sort(function(a, b) {
    return $(a).text().localeCompare($(b).text());
  }).appendTo($list);

});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<ul id="list">
  <li>delta</li>
  <li>cat</li>
  <li>alpha</li>
  <li>cat</li>
  <li>beta</li>
  <li>gamma</li>
  <li>gamma</li>
  <li>alpha</li>
  <li>cat</li>
  <li>delta</li>
  <li>bat</li>
  <li>cat</li>
</ul>

Note that returning 1 and -1 (or 0 and 1) from the compare function is absolutely wrong.