Sort Array of numeric & alphabetical elements (Natural Sort)

Question

Suppose I have an array

var arr = [1,5,"ahsldk",10,55,3,2,7,8,1,2,75,"abc","huds"];

and I try sorting it, I get something like ...

[1, 1, 10, 2, 2, 3, 5, 55, 7, 75, 8, "abc", "ahsldk", "huds"]

notice 10 is before 2, how can I have something more like

[1,1,2,2,3,5 ..., "abc", "ahs...",...]

Answer 1

Short and sweet, per the original question:

var arr = [1,5,"ahsldk",10,55,3,2,7,8,1,2,75,"abc","huds"];
arr.sort(function(a,b){
  var a1=typeof a, b1=typeof b;
  return a1<b1 ? -1 : a1>b1 ? 1 : a<b ? -1 : a>b ? 1 : 0;
});
// [1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 55, 75, "abc", "ahsldk", "huds"]

(Sort first by type, then by value.)

---

A more-full-featured natural sort:

var items = ['a1c', 'a01', 'a1', 'a13', 'a1a', 'a1b', 'a3b1', 'a1b0',
             'a1b3', 'a1b1', 'dogs', 'cats', 'hogs', 'a2', '2', '20',
             1, 13, 1.1, 1.13, '1.2', 'a'];
 
console.log(naturalSort(items))
 
function naturalSort(ary, fullNumbers) {
  var re = fullNumbers ? /[\d\.\-]+|\D+/g : /\d+|\D+/g;

  // Perform a Schwartzian transform, breaking each entry into pieces first
  for (var i=ary.length;i--;)
    ary[i] = [ary[i]].concat((ary[i]+"").match(re).map(function(s){
      return isNaN(s) ? [s,false,s] : [s*1,true,s];
    }));

  // Perform a cascading sort down the pieces
  ary.sort(function(a,b){
    var al = a.length, bl=b.length, e=al>bl?al:bl;
    for (var i=1;i<e;++i) {
      // Sort "a" before "a1"
      if (i>=al) return -1; else if (i>=bl) return 1;
      else if (a[i][0]!==b[i][0])
        return (a[i][1]&&b[i][1]) ?        // Are we comparing numbers?
               (a[i][0]-b[i][0]) :         // Then diff them.
               (a[i][2]<b[i][2]) ? -1 : 1; // Otherwise, lexicographic sort
    }
    return 0;
  });

  // Restore the original values into the array
  for (var i=ary.length;i--;) ary[i] = ary[i][0];
  return ary;
}

With naturalSort, pass true as the second parameter if you want "1.13" to sort before "1.2".