ruby sort array of an array

Question

I'm having a problem figuring out how I can sort an array of an array. Both arrays are straight forward and I'm sure it's quite simple, but I can't seem to figure it out.

Here's the array:

[["happy", 1], ["sad", 2], ["mad", 1], ["bad", 3], ["glad", 12]]

I want to sort it by the integer value of the inner array which is a value of how many times the word has occurred, biggest number first.

Answer 1

Try either:

array = [["happy", 1], ["sad", 2], ["mad", 1], ["bad", 3], ["glad", 12]]
sorted = array.sort {|a,b| a[1] <=> b[1]}

Or:

array = [["happy", 1], ["sad", 2], ["mad", 1], ["bad", 3], ["glad", 12]]
sorted = array.sort {|a,b| b[1] <=> a[1]}

Depending if you want ascending or descending.