Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

sort() — NN 3 IE J3 ECMA 1

Synopsis

sort([compareFunction])

Sorts the values of the array either by the ASCII value of string versions of each array entry or according to a comparison function of your own design. The sort() method repeatedly invokes the comparison function, passing two values from the array. The comparison function should return an integer value, which is interpreted by the sort() function as follows:

Value	Meaning
<0	The second passed value should sort above the first value.
0	The sort order of the two values should not change.
>0	The first passed value should sort above the second.

The following comparison function sorts values of an array in numerical (instead of ASCII) order:

function doCompare(a, b) {
    return a - b
}

To sort an array by this function, the statement is:

myArray.sort(doCompare)

By the time the sort() method has completed its job, it has sent all values to the doCompare() function two values at a time and sorted the values on whether the first value is larger than the second.

Not only does the sort() method rearrange the values in the array, but it also returns a copy of the sorted array.

Returned Value

An Array object.

Parameters

compareFunction

A reference to a function that receives two parameters and returns an integer result.