orderBy: some string values break ordering (e.g. minus, plus, slash, ...)

[m99coder]

Hi guys,

using built-in orderBy filter with some not so common string values representing keys in objects breaks ordering and also has different default sort order.

Basically a construct like the following doesn’t work currently by toggling sort order. It remains sorted descending always.

<li data-ng-repeat="item in items | orderBy:'key-with-dashes':sortOrder">{{ item | json }}</li>
<a data-ng-click="sortOrder = !sortOrder">toggle sort order</a>

Additionally using key/with/slashes results in being sorted ascending always.

JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/m99coder/82fj4vcs/3/

[gkalpak]

I am not sure this is an issue with orderBy (or filters in general), $parse or both.

The problem (if it is not obvious yet), it that in | orderBy:<expr>:<reverse>, <expr> is $parsed as an Angular expression, resulting to the following (semi-)unexpected behaviour:

$parse('key-with-dashes')(item)
  Expected: item['key-with-dashes']
  Actual:   item.key - item.with - item.dashes

One possible work-around, is to wrap the key-string in an extra pair of quotes, to "force" the parser to interpret it correctly, but that is not a real solution (imo). Not sure if a more appropriate solution/fix is actually possible.

Work-arounds:

// Replace:
item in items | orderBy:criterion:reverse

// With:
item in items | orderBy:'\''+criterion+'\'':reverse
// Or:
item in items | orderBy:(criterion | json):reverse

Updated fiddle

[lgalfaso]

@gkalpak is spot on. This works as expected and the provided solutions should take care in case of this specific case