Is there any built in method to sort part of an array?

Question

We can just simply use array.sort() (the array contains alphabets), but that will sort the whole array. But I just want to sort a part of the array like this:

Lets assume array = ["c" , "d" , "b" , "f" , "a" , "e"]. Now, instead of sorting it completely, I want to sort it from index 2 to 5 , so array becomes ["c" , "d" , "a" , "b" , "e" , "f"].

Is there any method in Array.prototype to do this?

NOTE: I can write a custom function to solve this problem, but I am avoiding it. Maybe I could just get a quick solution...

There is nothing built in like you desire in the current array prototypes list, the closest you can get if you don't want to write your own function (any reason to avoid doing such?) is to splice the array and, then, to concatenate it back once sorted (you can even do that inline if you are writing the array by your own). What I'm surprised about, though, is that there seems to be no logic about sorting just some elements of the array. — briosheje
– briosheje, Commented Mar 29, 2016 at 13:11

Etienne Noël · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-29 13:03:45Z

1

There is no function available that does exactly what you asked.

To achieve what you want, you'll have to do something like the following:

var array = ["c", "d", "b", "f", "a", "e"];
var array1 = array.splice(2, 4);

array1.sort();

array = array.concat(array1);

console.log(array);

edited Mar 29, 2016 at 13:03

Etienne Noël

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answered Mar 29, 2016 at 12:58

Nikhil Aggarwal

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Nikhil Aggarwal Over a year ago

@Jai - Apart from a typo mistake (already rectified), do you have any questions?

gurvinder372 · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-29 13:01:04Z

0

Try this

    var arr = ["c" , "d" , "b" , "f" , "a" , "e"];
    var tmpArr = arr.slice(2,5);
    tmpArr.sort();
    arr = arr.slice(0,2).concat(tmpArr).concat(arr.slice(5));

 document.body.innerHTML += JSON.stringify(arr,0,4);

answered Mar 29, 2016 at 13:01

gurvinder372

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Paul Humphreys · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-29 13:02:15Z

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The full list of Array prototype methods is here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/prototype.

The nearest thing I could find to what you want would be to use Array.slice to get 3 arrays: the elements before those you want to sort, the elements you want to sort and the elements after those you want to sort. Then use Array.sort to sort the desired elements. Finally glue the arrays back together with Array.concat.

answered Mar 29, 2016 at 13:02

Paul Humphreys

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Jai · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-29 13:12:56Z

0

.slice() will be good choice:

var arr = ["c" , "d" , "b" , "f" , "a" , "e"];
var o = arr.slice(0, 2); // take the first two out
var a = arr.slice(-4).sort(); // now slice back and sort it

var n = o.concat(a); // concat the two arrarys and return it.

document.querySelector('pre').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(n, 0, 0);

<pre></pre>

answered Mar 29, 2016 at 13:12

Jai

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