Swift 2.0 Sorting Array of Objects by Property

Question

In Swift 2.0, how would you go about sorting an array of custom objects by a property? I know in Swift 1.2, this was done using sorted() and sort(). However, these methods no longer work in Xcode 7 beta 4. Thanks!

For example:

class MyObject: NSObject {     var myDate : NSDate }  ...  let myObject1 : MyObject = MyObject() //same thing for myObject2, myObject3  var myArray : [MyObject] = [myObject1, myObject2, myObject3]   //now, I want to sort myArray by the myDate property of MyObject. 

Answer 1

In Swift 2:

• You can use sort method, using compare to compare the two dates:

  let sortedArray = myArray.sort { $0.myDate.compare($1.myDate) == .OrderedAscending }  // use `sorted` in Swift 1.2 

• Or, if you want to sort the original array, you can sortInPlace:

  myArray.sortInPlace { $0.myDate.compare($1.myDate) == .OrderedAscending }  // use `sort` in Swift 1.2 

---

In Swift 3:

• to return a sorted rendition of the array, use sorted, not sort

  let sortedArray = myArray.sorted { $0.myDate < $1.myDate } 

• to sort in place, it's now just sort:

  myArray.sort { $0.myDate < $1.myDate } 

And with Swift 3's Date type, you can use the < operator.

Answer 2

If you want to sort original array of custom objects. Here is another way to do so in Swift 2.1

var myCustomerArray = [Customer]() myCustomerArray.sortInPlace {(customer1:Customer, customer2:Customer) -> Bool in         customer1.id < customer2.id     } 

Where id is an Integer. You can use the same < operator for String as well.

You can learn more about its use by looking at an example here: Swift2: Nearby Customers