Say I had an array like this (in its practical use, the objects would have data in, but for this example, I don't really need that).

js code:

---

var MyArr = [];
MyArr["X"] = {};
MyArr["Z"] = {};
MyArr["W"] = {};
MyArr["Y"] = {};

---

Try

JScript code:

---

MyArr.sort();

---

This kind of a collection is called an associative array or a hash.

What you do is take all your keys and put them as values in another array, which you can then sort.  Then you iterate through the sorted key values and use them as index to the original array, the net result being iterating the original array ordered by the keys' values.  If you want the original array permanently sorted, you can rebuild it while doing this.

For an example, see here.

Objects can't be sorted by any built-in function that I know of. If you just need to access them in order you can create a separate array containing just the keys and sort that.

JScript code:

---

var MyObj = {}; // Define empty object
MyObj["X"] = 'bbbb';
MyObj["Z"] = 'dddd';
MyObj["W"] = 'aaaa';
MyObj["Y"] = 'cccc';

// Put keys in array and sort
var keyArray = [];
for(key in MyObj) keyArray.push(key);
keyArray.sort();

// Loop through object using keyArray order
for(var i=0; i<keyArray.length; ++i)
    Debug.Trace(MyObj[keyArray[i]]);

---

That's kind of what I've thought.    I can't test it now, but this should work, right?

js code:

---

var Arr = [];
// yeah, we know there's stuff in it
var Sort = [];
for (var K in Arr)
{
    Sort.push(K);
}
Sort.sort();
var New = [];
for (var X in Sort)
{
    New[Sort[X]] = Arr[Sort[X]];
}

---

JScript arrays can't have strings as keys, you're just extending the Object instance with W, X, Y and Z properties. They're not actually array elements, you can easily see this when you check MyArr.length (it'll still be 0).

As for sorting object properties, I see two possible solutions. You could create a new object and define the properties in the sorted order, as Eljay proposed. Or you could keep the same object and delete the properties with delete MyObj[K] and then re-add the properties. This preserves prototypes as you're working on the same object you started with.

However, like Eljay I also wonder why you'd need to do this anyway. Objects are great to retrieve a value by its key name and store values with their keys. The order of those values is not important for these tasks since objects don't and shouldn't behave like ordered lists. If you really need hashes with sorting behavior, you might be better off creating something like a custom sorted hash table class with getter/setter and enumerator methods.

I'm using it for Interface Writer, so that windows can be sorted alphabetically.  The data's stored like this:

js code:

---

Interface.Window[WndId].Property = Value;
Interface.Window[WndId].Control[CtrlId].Property = Value;
Interface.Window[WndId].Element[ElmtId].Property = Value;

---

In that case, you might be better off with what I suggested in my previous post:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matti
a custom sorted hash table class with getter/setter and enumerator methods

---

js code:

---

Interfaces.Window = new SortedObjectStore;

var Window = {};
Window.Id = "MyWindow";
Interface.Window.Add(Window);
// MyWindow is now in the cache

var Window = Interface.Window.Get("MyWindow");
// Retrieved MyWindow from the cache

Interface.Window.ChangeId(Window, "YourWindow");
// Window is now called YourWindow instead of MyWindow

Interface.Window.Remove(Window);
// YourWindow is now removed from the cache

---

js code:

---

for(var i=0, len=Interface.Window.GetCount(); i<len; ++i) {
    var Window = Interface.Window.GetBySortIdx(i);
    // Loop logic goes here
}

---

js code:

---

var MyWindow = {};
MyWindow.Id = "MyWindow";
MyWindow.Control = new SortedObjectStore;
MyWindow.Element = new SortedObjectStore;

---

js code:

---

var Window = function(Id) {
    this.Id = Id;
    this.Control = new SortedObjectStore;
    this.Element = new SortedObjectStore;
    Interface.Window.Add(this);
}
var MyWindow = new Window("MyWindow");

---

• You may not directly change the Id and SortIdx properties of the stored objects, since these are used by the class. You may only directly change the Id property when the object is not in the store, for example when creating an object to add to the store.
  
• Both sorting and retrieval are case-insensitive, they use the lowercase version of the Id property.
  
• When an object is removed from the store, its SortIdx is set to -1.
  
• The class is not foolproof. There are no validation checks to make sure that the right variable types are passed in as parameters, it just assumes that you're doing it right. It's up to you to implement some checks when working with user inputted data.