Sorting on multiple attributes with parent/child relationship

Question

I have a an array of objects:

    a {bindSortorder: 4, bindParentid: -1, bindQuestionid: 371}
    b {bindSortorder: 2, bindParentid: -1, bindQuestionid: 800}
    c {bindSortorder: 4, bindParentid: 23, bindQuestionid: 123}
    d {bindSortorder: 1, bindParentid: -1, bindQuestionid: 371}
    e {bindSortorder: 4, bindParentid: 371, bindQuestionid: 456}
    f {bindSortorder: 3, bindParentid: -1, bindQuestionid: 371}
    g {bindSortorder: 2, bindParentid: 800, bindQuestionid: 223}

I need to sort them in the following structure:

Sortorder

• Parent

  • Child (Questionid)

...so that the above example would result in the following order:

dbgfaec

If it's necessary for the "-1" denoting a parent to be changed to some other value, I'm open to that. I was just trying to take it out of the sort equation by making sure it could not equal an actual Questionid.

I've written the following which successfully prioritizes the sort order and groups the children together....but they are not grouped under their respective parents. All of the parents are grouped together, however.

    return (aSortorder < bSortorder ? -1 : (aSortorder > bSortorder) ? 1 : ((aParentid < bParentid) ? -1 : ((aParentid > bParentid) ? 1 : 0)));

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

Here's how I solved it:

SortQuestionsByParent:function(a,b){
    var aElm = $(a).data();
    var bElm = $(b).data();     
    var aParent = aElm.bindParentid;
    var bParent = bElm.bindParentid;
    var aQuestionId = aElm.bindQuestionid;
    var bQuestionId = bElm.bindQuestionid;
    var aOrder = aElm.bindSortorder;
    var bOrder = bElm.bindSortorder;
    var aTempId;
    var bTempId;
    (aParent < 0) ? aTempId = aQuestionId + ".5" : aTempId = aParent + ".9";
    (bParent < 0) ? bTempId = bQuestionId + ".5" : bTempId = bParent + ".9";
    var result = aOrder - bOrder || aTempId - bTempId;
    console.log(result);        
    return result;
}