Javascript - Sort Letter Number Combination

Question

I have a combination of letters and numbers. For example: 2E12, 1Z10, 3D13, 3D03, FB14, X002, etc.

I've tried a handful of methods to sort these strings, but nothing seems to work. parseInt works in clumps but the whole array is never sorted (it is a json array) and different results appear if the sort is run a second time.

I've also tried using regex to replace all of the letters with numbers, but this creates a logic error. Each time a large letter in the middle of the string is replaced it increases the number by a factor of 10 or 20. For example, 1Z10 would create 12610 even though it starts with a 1 and should sort towards the top.

Does anyone know of how to sort these strings? It doesn't matter if the letter is first or the number is first, as long as I can get away from the random smatterings.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

if you want digit sequences to sort as if they were numbers, before alphas and so that 100 sorts after 2, you need what is called a natural sort-

This is one example, Google will find more.

// case insensitive, digits to number interpolation

function natSort(as, bs){
    var a, b, a1, b1, i= 0, L, rx=  /(\d+)|(\D+)/g, rd=  /\d/;
    if(isFinite(as) && isFinite(bs)) return as - bs;
    a= String(as).toLowerCase();
    b= String(bs).toLowerCase();
    if(a=== b) return 0;
    if(!(rd.test(a) && rd.test(b))) return a> b? 1: -1;
    a= a.match(rx);
    b= b.match(rx);
    L= a.length> b.length? b.length: a.length;
    while(i < L){
        a1= a[i];
        b1= b[i++];
        if(a1!== b1){
            if(isFinite(a1) && isFinite(b1)){
                if(a1.charAt(0)=== "0") a1= "." + a1;
                if(b1.charAt(0)=== "0") b1= "." + b1;
                return a1 - b1;
            }
            else return a1> b1? 1: -1;
        }
    }
    return a.length - b.length;
}

var s= '2E12, 1Z10, 1z2, 3D13, 3D03, FB14, X002'.split(', ');

s.sort(natSort)

/*  returned value: (Array)
1z2,1Z10,2E12,3D03,3D13,FB14,X002
*/