Since you probably encounter more complex data structures like this array, I would expand the solution.
Are more pluggable version based on@ege-Özcan's very lovely answer.
Problem
I encountered the below and couldn't change it. I also did not want to flatten the object temporarily. Nor did I want to use underscore / lodash, mainly for performance reasons and the fun to implement it myself.
var People = [
{Name: {name: "Name", surname: "Surname"}, Middlename: "JJ"},
{Name: {name: "AAA", surname: "ZZZ"}, Middlename:"Abrams"},
{Name: {name: "Name", surname: "AAA"}, Middlename: "Wars"}
];
Goal
The goal is to sort it primarily by People.Name.name and secondarily by People.Name.surname
Obstacles
Now, in the base solution uses bracket notation to compute the properties to sort for dynamically. Here, though, we would have to construct the bracket notation dynamically also, since you would expect some like People['Name.name'] would work - which doesn't.
Simply doing People['Name']['name'], on the other hand, is static and only allows you to go down then-th level.
Solution
The main addition here will be to walk down the object tree and determine the value of the last leaf, you have to specify, as well as any intermediary leaf.
var People = [
{Name: {name: "Name", surname: "Surname"}, Middlename: "JJ"},
{Name: {name: "AAA", surname: "ZZZ"}, Middlename:"Abrams"},
{Name: {name: "Name", surname: "AAA"}, Middlename: "Wars"}
];
People.sort(dynamicMultiSort(['Name','name'], ['Name', '-surname']));
// Results in...
// [ { Name: { name: 'AAA', surname: 'ZZZ' }, Middlename: 'Abrams' },
// { Name: { name: 'Name', surname: 'Surname' }, Middlename: 'JJ' },
// { Name: { name: 'Name', surname: 'AAA' }, Middlename: 'Wars' } ]
// same logic as above, but strong deviation for dynamic properties
function dynamicSort(properties) {
var sortOrder = 1;
// determine sort order by checking sign of last element of array
if(properties[properties.length - 1][0] === "-") {
sortOrder = -1;
// Chop off sign
properties[properties.length - 1] = properties[properties.length - 1].substr(1);
}
return function (a,b) {
propertyOfA = recurseObjProp(a, properties)
propertyOfB = recurseObjProp(b, properties)
var result = (propertyOfA < propertyOfB) ? -1 : (propertyOfA > propertyOfB) ? 1 : 0;
return result * sortOrder;
};
}
/**
* Takes an object and recurses down the tree to a target leaf and returns it value
* @param {Object} root - Object to be traversed.
* @param {Array} leafs - Array of downwards traversal. To access the value: {parent:{ child: 'value'}} -> ['parent','child']
* @param {Number} index - Must not be set, since it is implicit.
* @return {String|Number} The property, which is to be compared by sort.
*/
function recurseObjProp(root, leafs, index) {
index ? index : index = 0
var upper = root
// walk down one level
lower = upper[leafs[index]]
// Check if last leaf has been hit by having gone one step too far.
// If so, return result from last step.
if (!lower) {
return upper
}
// Else: recurse!
index++
// HINT: Bug was here, for not explicitly returning function
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/17528613/3580261
return recurseObjProp(lower, leafs, index)
}
/**
* Multi-sort your array by a set of properties
* @param {...Array} Arrays to access values in the form of: {parent:{ child: 'value'}} -> ['parent','child']
* @return {Number} Number - number for sort algorithm
*/
function dynamicMultiSort() {
var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments); // slight deviation to base
return function (a, b) {
var i = 0, result = 0, numberOfProperties = args.length;
// REVIEW: slightly verbose; maybe no way around because of `.sort`-'s nature
// Consider: `.forEach()`
while(result === 0 && i < numberOfProperties) {
result = dynamicSort(args[i])(a, b);
i++;
}
return result;
}
}
Example
Working example on JSBin