How to sort a JavaScript array of objects by nested object property?

Question

I have this function to sort a JavaScript array of objects based on a property:

// arr is the array of objects, prop is the property to sort by var sort = function (prop, arr) {     arr.sort(function (a, b) {         if (a[prop] < b[prop]) {             return -1;         } else if (a[prop] > b[prop]) {             return 1;         } else {             return 0;         }     }); }; 

It works with arrays like this:

sort('property', [     {property:'1'},     {property:'3'},     {property:'2'},     {property:'4'}, ]); 

But I want to be able to sort also by nested properties, for example something like:

sort('nestedobj.property', [     {nestedobj:{property:'1'}},     {nestedobj:{property:'3'}},     {nestedobj:{property:'2'}},     {nestedobj:{property:'4'}} ]); 

However this doesn't work because it is not possible to do something like object['nestedobj.property'], it should be object['nestedobj']['property'].

Do you know how could I solve this problem and make my function work with properties of nested objects?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You can split the prop on ., and iterate over the Array updating the a and b with the next nested property during each iteration.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/x8KD6/1/

var sort = function (prop, arr) {     prop = prop.split('.');     var len = prop.length;      arr.sort(function (a, b) {         var i = 0;         while( i < len ) { a = a[prop[i]]; b = b[prop[i]]; i++; }         if (a < b) {             return -1;         } else if (a > b) {             return 1;         } else {             return 0;         }     });     return arr; };