javascript - Sorting an Array of Objects by two Properties

Question

I've got an Array of Objects I want to sort by two Properties:

1. RemindingTimestamp
2. ModificationTimestamp

Sorting order: desc

Sorting this Object by one Property isn't the problem, but in this case I've no idea how to get it work.

Answer 1

Presuming the timestamps themselves sort ok (e.g. ISO8601 and same time zone), try:

myArray.sort(function(a,b) {
  var x = a.RemindingTimestamp - b.RemindingTimestamp;
  return x == 0? a.ModificationTimestamp - b.ModificationTimestamp : x;
}

Edit - response to comments

A descending sort is achieved by changing the order of subtraction, or multiplying the result by -1. Dates that don't sort because they don't subtract (e.g. 2012-04-12) can be handled by conversion to dates first, e.g.

// Convert ISO8601 date string to date object
// Assuming date is ISO8601 long format, ignores timezone
function toDate(s) {
  var bits = s.split(/[-T :]/);
  var d = new Date(bits[0], bits[1]-1, bits[2]);
  d.setHours(bits[3], bits[4], parseFloat(bits[5])); 
  return d;
}

// Source data, should end up sorted per n
var myArray = [ 
  {RemindingTimestamp: '2012-04-15T23:15:12Z', 
   ModificationTimestamp: '2012-04-15T23:15:12Z', n: 4},
  {RemindingTimestamp: '2012-04-12T23:15:12Z', 
   ModificationTimestamp: '2012-04-12T23:15:12Z', n: 1},
  {RemindingTimestamp: '2012-04-12T23:15:12Z', 
   ModificationTimestamp: '2012-04-13T23:15:12Z', n: 2},
  {RemindingTimestamp: '2012-04-12T23:15:12Z', 
   ModificationTimestamp: '2012-04-13T23:15:14Z', n: 3}
];

// Sort it
myArray.sort(function(a,b) {
  var x = toDate(a.RemindingTimestamp) - toDate(b.RemindingTimestamp);
  return x? x : toDate(a.ModificationTimestamp) - toDate(b.ModificationTimestamp);
});

// Just to show the result
function sa(o) {
  var result = [], t;
  for (var i=0; i<o.length; i++) {
    t = o[i]; 
      result.push(t.n);
  }
  alert(result);
}

sa(myArray); // 1,2,3,4

The conversion of date string to date object can be extended to handle time zone if required (for ISO8601 compliant strings only, those that use time zone abbreviations instead of the actual offset are unreliable).