Javascript sorting to match SQL Server sorting

Question

Can anyone point me towards a sorting algorithm in javascript that would sort the same way SQL Server does (for nvarchar/unicode columns)?

For reference, my previous question about this behavior can be found here: SQL Server 2008 - different sort orders on VARCHAR vs NVARCHAR values

Rather than attempting to change the sorting behavior on the server side, is there a way I can match this on the client side? My previous question specifically talked about dashes in sort orders, but I'm going to assume there's a little more to it than simply ignoring dashes as part of the sort.

I have added some additional use cases here to better demonstrate the issue

Sample data as sorted from SQL Server (2008):

?test  
^&$Grails Found  
bags of Garbage  
Brochures distributed  
Calls Received  
exhibit visitors  
Exhibit Visitors  
-Exhibit Visitors  
--Exhibit Visitors  
Ëxhibit Visitors  
Grails Found  

How can I get javascript to sort the same values in the same way?

Please let me know if I can further clarify.

Answer 1

@BrockAdams' answer is great, but I had a few edge cases with hyphens in the middle of the string that didn't match up with SQL server, I couldn't quite figure out where it was going wrong, so I wrote a more functional version that just filters out the ignored characters and then compares arrays based on the latin code points.

It's probably less performant, but there's less code to understand and it works on the matches the SQL test cases that I've added below.

I was using a SQL Server database with Latin1_General_100_CI_AS, so it was case-insensitive, but I've kept the code here to be case-sensitive, It's easy enough to switch to case-insensitive checking, by creating a wrapper function applying toLowerCase to the variables.

There wasn't a difference in the sorting between the two collations with the test cases I had.

/**
 * This is a modified version of sortByRoughSQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS
 * This has a more functional approach, it is more basic
 * It simply does a character filter and then sort
 * @link https://stackoverflow.com/a/3266430/327074
 *
 * @param   {String} a
 * @param   {String} b
 * @returns {Number}   -1,0,1
 */
function latinSqlSort(a, b) {
    'use strict';
    //--- This is the master lookup table for Latin1 code-points.
    //    Here through the extended set \u02AF
    var latinLookup = [
         -1,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,159,160,161,162,163,164,
        165,166,167,168,169,170,171,172,173,174,175,176,  0,  7,  8,  9, 10, 11, 12,210,
         13, 14, 15, 41, 16,211, 17, 18, 65, 69, 71, 74, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 19, 20,
         42, 43, 44, 21, 22,214,257,266,284,308,347,352,376,387,419,427,438,459,466,486,
        529,534,538,559,576,595,636,641,647,650,661, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,213,255,265,
        283,307,346,350,374,385,418,426,436,458,464,485,528,533,536,558,575,594,635,640,
        646,648,660, 29, 30, 31, 32,177,178,179,180,181,182,183,184,185,186,187,188,189,
        190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,199,200,201,202,203,204,205,206,207,208,209,
          1, 33, 53, 54, 55, 56, 34, 57, 35, 58,215, 46, 59,212, 60, 36, 61, 45, 72, 75,
         37, 62, 63, 64, 38, 70,487, 47, 66, 67, 68, 39,219,217,221,231,223,233,250,276,
        312,310,316,318,392,390,395,397,295,472,491,489,493,503,495, 48,511,599,597,601,
        603,652,590,573,218,216,220,230,222,232,249,275,311,309,315,317,391,389,394,396,
        294,471,490,488,492,502,494, 49,510,598,596,600,602,651,589,655,229,228,227,226,
        235,234,268,267,272,271,270,269,274,273,286,285,290,287,324,323,322,321,314,313,
        326,325,320,319,358,357,362,361,356,355,364,363,378,377,380,379,405,404,403,402,
        401,400,407,406,393,388,417,416,421,420,432,431,428,440,439,447,446,444,443,442,
        441,450,449,468,467,474,473,470,469,477,484,483,501,500,499,498,507,506,527,526,
        540,539,544,543,542,541,561,560,563,562,567,566,565,564,580,579,578,577,593,592,
        611,610,609,608,607,606,613,612,617,616,615,614,643,642,654,653,656,663,662,665,
        664,667,666,574,258,260,262,261,264,263,281,278,277,304,292,289,288,297,335,337,
        332,348,349,369,371,382,415,409,434,433,448,451,462,476,479,509,521,520,524,523,
        531,530,552,572,571,569,570,583,582,581,585,632,631,634,638,658,657,669,668,673,
        677,676,678, 73, 79, 78,680,644, 50, 51, 52, 40,303,302,301,457,456,455,482,481,
        480,225,224,399,398,497,496,605,604,626,625,620,619,624,623,622,621,334,241,240,
        237,236,254,253,366,365,360,359,430,429,505,504,515,514,675,674,422,300,299,298,
        354,353, 84, 85, 86, 87,239,238,252,251,513,512,243,242,245,244,328,327,330,329,
        411,410,413,412,517,516,519,518,547,546,549,548,628,627,630,629, 88, 89, 90, 91,
         92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,
        112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,
        132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,246,247,248,259,279,280,293,291,
        339,336,338,331,340,341,342,423,367,373,351,370,372,383,381,384,408,414,386,445,
        453,452,454,461,463,460,475,478,465,508,522,525,532,550,553,554,555,545,556,557,
        537,551,568,333,424,343,344,586,584,618,633,637,639,645,659,649,670,671,672,679,
        681,682,683,282,686,256,345,368,375,425,435,437,535,684,685,305,296,306,591,587,
        588,144,145,146,147,148,149,150
    ];

    /**
     * A bunch of characters get ignored for the primary sort weight.
     * The most important ones are the hyphen and apostrophe characters.
     * A bunch of control characters and a couple of odds and ends, make up
     * the rest.
     *
     * @param   {Number}
     * @returns {Boolean}
     * @link https://stackoverflow.com/a/3266430/327074
     */
    function ignoreForPrimarySort(iCharCode) {
        if (iCharCode < 9) {
            return true;
        }

        if (iCharCode >= 14 && iCharCode <= 31) {
            return true;
        }

        if (iCharCode >= 127 && iCharCode <= 159) {
            return true;
        }

        if (iCharCode == 39 || iCharCode == 45 || iCharCode == 173) {
            return true;
        }

        return false;
    }

    // normal sort
    function compare(a, b) {
        if (a === b) {
            return 0;
        }
        return a > b ? 1 : -1;
    }

    // compare two arrays return first compare difference
    function arrayCompare(a, b) {
        return a.reduce(function (acc, x, i) {
            return acc === 0 && i < b.length ? compare(x, b[i]) : acc;
        }, 0);
    }

    /**
     * convert a string to array of latin code point ordering
     * @param   {String} x
     * @returns {Array}    integer array
     */
    function toLatinOrder(x) {
        return x.split('')
            // convert to char codes
            .map(function(x){return x.charCodeAt(0);})
            // filter out ignored characters
            .filter(function(x){return !ignoreForPrimarySort(x);})
            // convert to latin order
            .map(function(x){return latinLookup[x];});
    }

    // convert inputs
    var charA = toLatinOrder(a),
        charB = toLatinOrder(b);

    // compare the arrays
    var charsCompare = arrayCompare(charA, charB);
    if (charsCompare !== 0) {
        return charsCompare;
    }

    // fallback to the filtered array length
    var charsLenCompare = compare(charA.length, charB.length);
    if (charsLenCompare !== 0) {
        return charsLenCompare;
    }

    // Final fallback to a basic length comparison
    return compare(a.length, b.length);
}

var tests = [
    'Grails Found',
    '--Exhibit Visitors',
    '-Exhibit Visitors',
    'Exhibit Visitors',
    'Calls Received',
    'Ëxhibit Visitors',
    'Brochures distributed',
    'exhibit visitors',
    'bags of Garbage',
    '^&$Grails Found',
    '?test',
    '612C-520',
    '612-C-122',
    '612C-122 I',
    '612-C-126 L',
    '612C-301 B',
    '612C-304 B',
    '612C-306',
    '612-C-306',
    '612-C-306 2',
    '612-C-403 H',
    '612C403 O',
    '612-C-403(V)',
    '612E-306A/B I',
    '612E-306A/B O',
    '612C-121 O',
    '612C-111 B',
    '- -612C-111 B'
].sort(latinSqlSort).join('<br>');

document.write(tests);

I also made a SQL fiddle to double check it. Should the link ever break here's a screenshot of how it looks:

Answer 2

First what is your database collation? I'm going to assume it's SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS or SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. If so, then the following should work (not fully tested, yet).

It looks like writing a true Unicode sorter is a major undertaking. I've seen tax codes that were more straightforward than the specs. ;-) It always seems to involve lookup table(s) and at least a 3-level sort -- with modifying characters and contractions to account for.

I've limited the following to the Latin 1, Latin Extended-A, and Latin Extended-B tables/collation. The algorithm should work on those sets fairly well but I've not fully tested it nor properly accounted for modifying characters (to save speed and complexity).

See it in action at jsbin.com.

Function:

function bIgnoreForPrimarySort (iCharCode)
{
    /*--- A bunch of characters get ignored for the primary sort weight.
        The most important ones are the hyphen and apostrophe characters.
        A bunch of control characters and a couple of odds and ends, make up
        the rest.
    */
    if (iCharCode < 9)                                                  return true;

    if (iCharCode >= 14   &&  iCharCode <= 31)                          return true;

    if (iCharCode >= 127  &&  iCharCode <= 159)                         return true;

    if (iCharCode == 39   ||  iCharCode == 45  ||  iCharCode == 173)    return true;

    return false;
}


function SortByRoughSQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS (sA, sB)
{
    /*--- This Sorts Latin1 and extended Latin1 unicode with an approximation
        of SQL's SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS collation.
        Certain modifying characters or contractions my be off (not tested), we trade-off
        perfect accuracy for speed and relative simplicity.

        True unicode sorting is devilishly complex and we're not getting paid enough to
        fully implement it in Javascript.  ;-)

        It looks like a definative sort would require painstaking exegesis of documents
        such as: http://unicode.org/reports/tr10/
    */
    //--- This is the master lookup table for Latin1 code-points.  Here through the extended set \u02AF
    //--- Make this static?
    var aSortOrder  = [
                     -1,  151,  152,  153,  154,  155,  156,  157,  158,    2,    3,    4,    5,    6,  159,  160,  161,  162,  163,  164,
                    165,  166,  167,  168,  169,  170,  171,  172,  173,  174,  175,  176,    0,    7,    8,    9,   10,   11,   12,  210,
                     13,   14,   15,   41,   16,  211,   17,   18,   65,   69,   71,   74,   76,   77,   80,   81,   82,   83,   19,   20,
                     42,   43,   44,   21,   22,  214,  257,  266,  284,  308,  347,  352,  376,  387,  419,  427,  438,  459,  466,  486,
                    529,  534,  538,  559,  576,  595,  636,  641,  647,  650,  661,   23,   24,   25,   26,   27,   28,  213,  255,  265,
                    283,  307,  346,  350,  374,  385,  418,  426,  436,  458,  464,  485,  528,  533,  536,  558,  575,  594,  635,  640,
                    646,  648,  660,   29,   30,   31,   32,  177,  178,  179,  180,  181,  182,  183,  184,  185,  186,  187,  188,  189,
                    190,  191,  192,  193,  194,  195,  196,  197,  198,  199,  200,  201,  202,  203,  204,  205,  206,  207,  208,  209,
                      1,   33,   53,   54,   55,   56,   34,   57,   35,   58,  215,   46,   59,  212,   60,   36,   61,   45,   72,   75,
                     37,   62,   63,   64,   38,   70,  487,   47,   66,   67,   68,   39,  219,  217,  221,  231,  223,  233,  250,  276,
                    312,  310,  316,  318,  392,  390,  395,  397,  295,  472,  491,  489,  493,  503,  495,   48,  511,  599,  597,  601,
                    603,  652,  590,  573,  218,  216,  220,  230,  222,  232,  249,  275,  311,  309,  315,  317,  391,  389,  394,  396,
                    294,  471,  490,  488,  492,  502,  494,   49,  510,  598,  596,  600,  602,  651,  589,  655,  229,  228,  227,  226,
                    235,  234,  268,  267,  272,  271,  270,  269,  274,  273,  286,  285,  290,  287,  324,  323,  322,  321,  314,  313,
                    326,  325,  320,  319,  358,  357,  362,  361,  356,  355,  364,  363,  378,  377,  380,  379,  405,  404,  403,  402,
                    401,  400,  407,  406,  393,  388,  417,  416,  421,  420,  432,  431,  428,  440,  439,  447,  446,  444,  443,  442,
                    441,  450,  449,  468,  467,  474,  473,  470,  469,  477,  484,  483,  501,  500,  499,  498,  507,  506,  527,  526,
                    540,  539,  544,  543,  542,  541,  561,  560,  563,  562,  567,  566,  565,  564,  580,  579,  578,  577,  593,  592,
                    611,  610,  609,  608,  607,  606,  613,  612,  617,  616,  615,  614,  643,  642,  654,  653,  656,  663,  662,  665,
                    664,  667,  666,  574,  258,  260,  262,  261,  264,  263,  281,  278,  277,  304,  292,  289,  288,  297,  335,  337,
                    332,  348,  349,  369,  371,  382,  415,  409,  434,  433,  448,  451,  462,  476,  479,  509,  521,  520,  524,  523,
                    531,  530,  552,  572,  571,  569,  570,  583,  582,  581,  585,  632,  631,  634,  638,  658,  657,  669,  668,  673,
                    677,  676,  678,   73,   79,   78,  680,  644,   50,   51,   52,   40,  303,  302,  301,  457,  456,  455,  482,  481,
                    480,  225,  224,  399,  398,  497,  496,  605,  604,  626,  625,  620,  619,  624,  623,  622,  621,  334,  241,  240,
                    237,  236,  254,  253,  366,  365,  360,  359,  430,  429,  505,  504,  515,  514,  675,  674,  422,  300,  299,  298,
                    354,  353,   84,   85,   86,   87,  239,  238,  252,  251,  513,  512,  243,  242,  245,  244,  328,  327,  330,  329,
                    411,  410,  413,  412,  517,  516,  519,  518,  547,  546,  549,  548,  628,  627,  630,  629,   88,   89,   90,   91,
                     92,   93,   94,   95,   96,   97,   98,   99,  100,  101,  102,  103,  104,  105,  106,  107,  108,  109,  110,  111,
                    112,  113,  114,  115,  116,  117,  118,  119,  120,  121,  122,  123,  124,  125,  126,  127,  128,  129,  130,  131,
                    132,  133,  134,  135,  136,  137,  138,  139,  140,  141,  142,  143,  246,  247,  248,  259,  279,  280,  293,  291,
                    339,  336,  338,  331,  340,  341,  342,  423,  367,  373,  351,  370,  372,  383,  381,  384,  408,  414,  386,  445,
                    453,  452,  454,  461,  463,  460,  475,  478,  465,  508,  522,  525,  532,  550,  553,  554,  555,  545,  556,  557,
                    537,  551,  568,  333,  424,  343,  344,  586,  584,  618,  633,  637,  639,  645,  659,  649,  670,  671,  672,  679,
                    681,  682,  683,  282,  686,  256,  345,  368,  375,  425,  435,  437,  535,  684,  685,  305,  296,  306,  591,  587,
                    588,  144,  145,  146,  147,  148,  149,  150
                    ];

    var iLenA           = sA.length,    iLenB           = sB.length;
    var jA              = 0,            jB              = 0;
    var sIgnoreBuff_A   = [],           sIgnoreBuff_B   = [];


    function iSortIgnoreBuff ()
    {
        var iIgLenA = sIgnoreBuff_A.length, iIgLenB = sIgnoreBuff_B.length;
        var kA      = 0,                    kB      = 0;

        while (kA < iIgLenA  &&  kB < iIgLenB)
        {
            var igA = sIgnoreBuff_A [kA++],  igB = sIgnoreBuff_B [kB++];

            if (aSortOrder[igA]  >  aSortOrder[igB] )   return 1;
            if (aSortOrder[igA]  <  aSortOrder[igB] )   return -1;
        }
        //--- All else equal, longest string loses
        if (iIgLenA > iIgLenB)      return 1;
        if (iIgLenA < iIgLenB)      return -1;

        return 0;
    }


    while (jA < iLenA  &&  jB < iLenB)
    {
        var cA  = sA.charCodeAt (jA++);
        var cB  = sB.charCodeAt (jB++);

        if (cA == cB)
        {
            continue;
        }

        while (bIgnoreForPrimarySort (cA) )
        {
            sIgnoreBuff_A.push (cA);
            if (jA < iLenA)
                cA  = sA.charCodeAt (jA++);
            else
                break;
        }
        while (bIgnoreForPrimarySort (cB) )
        {
            sIgnoreBuff_B.push (cB);
            if (jB < iLenB)
                cB  = sB.charCodeAt (jB++);
            else
                break;
        }

        /*--- Have we reached the end of one or both strings, ending on an ignore char?
            The strings were equal, up to that point.
            If one of the strings is NOT an ignore char, while the other is, it wins.
        */
        if (bIgnoreForPrimarySort (cA) )
        {
            if (! bIgnoreForPrimarySort (cB))   return -1;
        }
        else if (bIgnoreForPrimarySort (cB) )
        {
            return 1;
        }
        else
        {
            if (aSortOrder[cA]  >  aSortOrder[cB] )
                return 1;

            if (aSortOrder[cA]  <  aSortOrder[cB] )
                return -1;

            //--- We are equal, so far, on the main chars.  Where there ignore chars?
            var iBuffSort   = iSortIgnoreBuff ();
            if (iBuffSort)  return iBuffSort;

            //--- Still here?  Reset the ignore arrays.
            sIgnoreBuff_A   = [];
            sIgnoreBuff_B   = [];
        }

    } //-- while (jA < iLenA  &&  jB < iLenB)

    /*--- We have gone through all of at least one string and they are still both
        equal barring ignore chars or unequal lengths.
    */
    var iBuffSort   = iSortIgnoreBuff ();
    if (iBuffSort)  return iBuffSort;

    //--- All else equal, longest string loses
    if (iLenA > iLenB)      return 1;
    if (iLenA < iLenB)      return -1;

    return 0;

} //-- function SortByRoughSQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS

---

Test:

var aPhrases    = [
                    'Grails Found',
                    '--Exhibit Visitors',
                    '-Exhibit Visitors',
                    'Exhibit Visitors',
                    'Calls Received',
                    'Ëxhibit Visitors',
                    'Brochures distributed',
                    'exhibit visitors',
                    'bags of Garbage',
                    '^&$Grails Found',
                    '?test'
                ];

aPhrases.sort (SortByRoughSQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS);

console.log (aPhrases.join ('\n') );

---

Results:

?test
^&$Grails Found
bags of Garbage
Brochures distributed
Calls Received
exhibit visitors
Exhibit Visitors
-Exhibit Visitors
--Exhibit Visitors
Ëxhibit Visitors
Grails Found

Answer 3

Sorry, JavaScript has no collation features. The only string comparison you get is directly on the UTF-16 code units in a String, as returned by charCodeAt().

For characters inside the Basic Multilingual Plane, that's the same as a binary collation, so if you need JS and SQL Server to agree (ignoring the astral planes anyway), I think that's the only way you're going to do it. (Short of building a string collator in JS and meticulously copying SQL Server's collation rules, anyway. Not a lot of fun there.)

(What's the use case, why do they need to match?)