> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://bryan-guner.gitbook.io/my-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://bryan-guner.gitbook.io/my-docs/untitled-1/content/sorting-strings.md).

# Sorting Strings

Javascript has a native method [**sort**](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/sort) that allows sorting arrays. Doing a simple `array.sort()` will treat each array entry as a string and sort it alphabetically. Also you can provide your [own custom sorting](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/sort#Parameters) function.

```javascript
['Shanghai', 'New York', 'Mumbai', 'Buenos Aires'].sort();
// ["Buenos Aires", "Mumbai", "New York", "Shanghai"]
```

But when you try order an array of non ASCII characters like this `['é', 'a', 'ú', 'c']`, you will obtain a strange result `['c', 'e', 'á', 'ú']`. That happens because sort works only with the English language.

See the next example:

```javascript
// Spanish
['único', 'árbol', 'cosas', 'fútbol'].sort();
// ["cosas", "fútbol", "árbol", "único"] // bad order

// German
['Woche', 'wöchentlich', 'wäre', 'Wann'].sort();
// ["Wann", "Woche", "wäre", "wöchentlich"] // bad order
```

Fortunately, there are two ways to overcome this behavior [localeCompare](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/localeCompare) and [Intl.Collator](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Collator) provided by ECMAScript Internationalization API.

> Both methods have their own custom parameters in order to configure it to work adequately.

#### Using `localeCompare()`

```javascript
['único', 'árbol', 'cosas', 'fútbol'].sort(function (a, b) {
    return a.localeCompare(b);
});
// ["árbol", "cosas", "fútbol", "único"]

['Woche', 'wöchentlich', 'wäre', 'Wann'].sort(function (a, b) {
    return a.localeCompare(b);
});
// ["Wann", "wäre", "Woche", "wöchentlich"]
```

#### Using `Intl.Collator()`

```javascript
['único', 'árbol', 'cosas', 'fútbol'].sort(Intl.Collator().compare);
// ["árbol", "cosas", "fútbol", "único"]

['Woche', 'wöchentlich', 'wäre', 'Wann'].sort(Intl.Collator().compare);
// ["Wann", "wäre", "Woche", "wöchentlich"]
```

* For each method you can customize the location.
* According to [Firefox](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/localeCompare#Performance) Intl.Collator is faster when comparing large numbers of strings.

So when you are working with arrays of strings in a language other than English, remember to use this method to avoid unexpected sorting.


---

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