How to sort an NSArray in alphabetical order with numbers first

Question

I have a small doubt that is I have an NSArray which contains the following 4 objects:

Genesis, 1 Kings, leviticus, 2 Kings

I want to sort this array in dictionary order like i want an expected output like this

1 Kings, 2 Kings, Genesis, leviticus

How can this be achieved?

Answer 1

Go to this link:

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Collections/Articles/Arrays.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000132-SW5

This is Apple documentation and your problem is solved over there.

Check out the example.

//First create the array of dictionaries
NSString *last = @"lastName";
NSString *first = @"firstName";

NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray array];
NSArray *sortedArray;

NSDictionary *dict;
dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                 @"Jo", first, @"Smith", last, nil];
[array addObject:dict];

dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                 @"Joe", first, @"Smith", last, nil];
[array addObject:dict];

dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                 @"Joe", first, @"Smythe", last, nil];
[array addObject:dict];

dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                 @"Joanne", first, @"Smith", last, nil];
[array addObject:dict];

dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
                 @"Robert", first, @"Jones", last, nil];
[array addObject:dict];

//Next we sort the contents of the array by last name then first name

// The results are likely to be shown to a user
// Note the use of the localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare: selector
NSSortDescriptor *lastDescriptor =[[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:last
                           ascending:YES
                           selector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];
NSSortDescriptor *firstDescriptor =
[[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:first
                           ascending:YES
                           selector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];

NSArray *descriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:lastDescriptor, firstDescriptor, nil];
sortedArray = [array sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:descriptors];

This code is an example from Apple documentation.

Answer 2

You can sort an array of NSString alphabetically like this:

NSArray *sortedArray = [myArray sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(caseInsensitiveCompare:)];