Javascript: sorting objects in objects

Question

As you may assume - I'm stuck ;) My problem is that I have an object with some other objects within:

let players = {
  buggy: {
    name: 'John',
    surname: 'Cocroach',
    rank: 872
  },
  valentino: {
    name: 'Antonio',
    surname: 'Valencia',
    rank: 788
  },
  tommy: {
    name: 'Tom',
    surname: 'Witcher',
    rank: 101
  },
};

And what I want to do is to sort "players" object by "rank": (tommy(101), valentino(788), buggy(872)) or by a string (eg "surname"). What is more I want it to still be an object (I am using it in several other functions ;) )

I tried some ideas form here (eg converting to an array), but all were uneffective. What would be the best option?

Answer 1

As objects are stored by reference you can have an array and an object operating on the same underlying player objects:

 const playersByRank = Object.values(players).sort((a, b) => a.rank - b.rank);

Now you can access a player either via its name under players or via its relative rank under playersByRank , eg taking the player "buggy" is the same as taking the highest ranked player:

players.buggy.test = "works";
console.log(playersByRank[0].test);

Answer 2

You can sort the keys and then return an iterable object. This way you will be able to loop it.

Another approach is using a simple array with the keys, Etc, however this approach (iterable object) is cleaner.

Let's create a function called sortAsIterable(..) , this function will return an iterable object of players.

Important: Be careful with IE

 let players = { buggy: { name: 'John', surname: 'Cocroach', rank: 872 }, valentino: { name: 'Antonio', surname: 'Valencia', rank: 788 }, tommy: { name: 'Tom', surname: 'Witcher', rank: 101 },}; function sortAsIterable(obj) { let sortedKeys = Object.keys(obj).sort(function(a, b) { return obj[a].rank - obj[b].rank; }); let myIterable = {}, index = 0; myIterable[Symbol.iterator] = function*() { for (let k of sortedKeys) yield {[k]: obj[k]}; }; return myIterable; } // Object sorted. let sortedPlayers = sortAsIterable(players); players.buggy.name = "Ele"; // This is to illustrate the live access to the values. // Now you can iterate them . // You can do this as much as you want, for example in different parts of your code. for (let player of sortedPlayers) console.log(player); 

 .as-console-wrapper { max-height: 100% !important; top: 0; } 

Resources

• Iterators and generators