Powershell sort-object with number

Question

I have an array of strings make like this "name: number" and I need to order it by number every time that I add another row to the array but the sorting doesn't work.

The idea is that every time that the function is called I create a new row and I add it to the text. Then, for each row in the text I add in front of the row the number and a '@'. Now the array is like this:

15@foo:15

2@bar:2

4@foobar:4

Now I'd like to order it by number and then remove the part that I added to sort.

Function Add($name, $number) {
    $newRow = "$($name):$number`r`n"
    $Script:text = $Script:text + $newRow
    ForEach($row in $text.Split("`r`n")) {
        if ($row.length -ne 0) {
            $rows = $rows + $row.Split(":")[1] + "@" + $row + "`r`n"
        }
    }
    $rows | Sort-Object
    ForEach($row in $rows.Split("`r`n")) {
        $newText = $newText + $row.Split("@")[1] + "`r`n"
    }
    $textBox.Text = $newText
}

It all works except the sorting.

Does anyone knows how to fix it?

As an side: $rows | Sort-Object outputs the results of the sort as a new array - Sort-Object never sorts in place; therefore: $rows = $rows | Sort-Object — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Aug 11, 2020 at 20:44

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-11 20:40:12Z

3

You can sort your input directly, by passing a script block ({ ... }) to Sort-Object that extracts the number from each input string ($_) and sorts based on it:

PS> 'foo:15', 'bar:2', 'foobar:4' | Sort-Object { [int] ($_ -split ':')[-1] }
bar:2
foobar:4
foo:15

In your case, since the lines are part of a single, multi-line string you need to split the string into individual lines first, then sort them, then rejoin the sorted lines:

(
@'
foo:15
bar:2
foobar:4
'@ -split '\r?\n' | Sort-Object { [int] ($_ -split ':')[-1] }
) -join [Environment]::NewLine

The output looks the same as above, but in this case it isn't an array of sorted lines, but a single multi-line string containing the sorted lines.

Note: Sort-Object outputs a new array, it doesn't sort in place. Therefore, to save the sorted array back to the same variable, you must use something like:
$rows = $rows | Sort-Object ...

edited Aug 11, 2020 at 20:40

answered Aug 11, 2020 at 19:48

mklement0

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