Post History
Sandbox
Generalized Sort
#1: Initial revision
Generalized Sort
# Challenge We all know and love the generic sort function, right? However, it only sorts based off one criterion - what if we want more? That's where you come in. Your task is to sort an array based off an arbitrary number of comparison functions `c1`, `c2`, `c3`, etc.; first sort by comparing using `c1`, if there is a tie then sort by `c2`, if there is still a tie sort by `c3`, etc. Output order is undefined if none of the comparison functions breaks the tie. ## Example Here is an example in JavaScript: ```javascript function sort(array, ...comparators) { return array.sort((a, b) => comparators.map(c => c(a, b)) // Apply comparisons .find(r => r != 0) // Find the first non-zero comparison ); } ``` [Try it online!](https://tio.run/##dZJNb8IwDIbP9Fd4XGg1CB/XiUmAtAPStAOHSWMcTAhrUEkqJwyxab@9c1sYtLBKTdU3z2s7sTf4iU6STn3H2JXKsvXOSK@tAWfJh0iEhzYIIaTdpkjoLbkIvoMGKb8jAwUgCjbENiwjGD4GjcYFLbaYhpJlkCURQbcLozRNDlBi2lnj2ATnR6y1WYWUuwjuhtCLIHc9sQo@VrDW5DwYazpfiuxFnKARPQQ/meSIHrziZQjzIA/ZnMRMeG0QpjY2zDbb5cbMqz3S6j/5NdZe1cWX1pg0XrGzrfbxSRzrJKkqeYZ6milulatiM0z4cmrcufxndVDkKnpNO5VTVYt6aoW/oYyRDtX8Zcgx2f0VV7OPlktVM5/Iau7i5JWI5SFvWm@d/NiGYFHMk@FLy4cj/wqXJtqHLWhF3PugbL3sc@P/JhJw3l@IxEpM1KSYFRUuWWL@iA9qeO8a7y1O4W2iePcjLMY@H7I25@N3EF0Vxy64B66N1@Kfk4qN1SZsvZu84OwX "JavaScript (Node.js) – Try It Online") ## Test Cases Here is a test case, sorting first by last name then by first name.[^1] ``` Christina Johnson Steward Johnson Steward White Steward O'Brian Steward Smith Bill Smith John Johnson James Smith Sally Johnson Christina Meyers Chris Meyers Steward Meyers Bill O'Brian Zachary Smith Chris Brown Zachary O'Brian Abbey Smith Zachary Meyers John Brown Sally Smith Zachary Johnson Chris White => Chris Brown John Brown Christina Johnson John Johnson Sally Johnson Steward Johnson Zachary Johnson Chris Meyers Christina Meyers Steward Meyers Zachary Meyers Bill O'Brian Steward O'Brian Zachary O'Brian Abbey Smith Bill Smith James Smith Sally Smith Steward Smith Zachary Smith Chris White Steward White ``` This is <a class="badge is-tag" href="https://codegolf.codidact.com/categories/49/tags/4274">code-golf</a>, so the entry with the lowest bytes wins! [^1]: Incidentally, I generated this data with a short script