How do I sort an NSMutableArray with custom object

Question

What I want to do seems pretty simple, but I can't find any answers on the web. I have an NSMutableArray of objects, and let's say they are 'Person' objects. I want to sort the NSMutableArray by Person.birthDate which is an NSDate.

I think it has something to do with this method:

NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(???)];

In Java I would make my object implement Comparable, or use Collections.sort with an inline custom comparator...how on earth do you do this in Objective-C?

Answer 1

NSMutableArray *stockHoldingCompanies = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:fortune1stock,fortune2stock,fortune3stock,fortune4stock,fortune5stock,fortune6stock , nil];

NSSortDescriptor *sortOrder = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"companyName" ascending:NO];

[stockHoldingCompanies sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sortOrder]];

NSEnumerator *enumerator = [stockHoldingCompanies objectEnumerator];

ForeignStockHolding *stockHoldingCompany;

NSLog(@"Fortune 6 companies sorted by Company Name");

    while (stockHoldingCompany = [enumerator nextObject]) {
        NSLog(@"===============================");
        NSLog(@"CompanyName:%@",stockHoldingCompany.companyName);
        NSLog(@"Purchase Share Price:%.2f",stockHoldingCompany.purchaseSharePrice);
        NSLog(@"Current Share Price: %.2f",stockHoldingCompany.currentSharePrice);
        NSLog(@"Number of Shares: %i",stockHoldingCompany.numberOfShares);
        NSLog(@"Cost in Dollars: %.2f",[stockHoldingCompany costInDollars]);
        NSLog(@"Value in Dollars : %.2f",[stockHoldingCompany valueInDollars]);
    }
    NSLog(@"===============================");

Answer 2

I have created a small library of category methods, called Linq to ObjectiveC, that makes this sort of thing more easy. Using the sort method with a key selector, you can sort by birthDate as follows:

NSArray* sortedByBirthDate = [input sort:^id(id person) {
    return [person birthDate];
}]

Answer 3

I tried all, but this worked for me. In a class I have another class named "crimeScene", and want to sort by a property of "crimeScene".

This works like a charm:

NSSortDescriptor *sorter = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"crimeScene.distance" ascending:YES];
[self.arrAnnotations sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sorter]];

Answer 4

Your Person objects need to implement a method, say compare: which takes another Person object, and return NSComparisonResult according to the relationship between the 2 objects.

Then you would call sortedArrayUsingSelector: with @selector(compare:) and it should be done.

There are other ways, but as far as I know there is no Cocoa-equiv of the Comparable interface. Using sortedArrayUsingSelector: is probably the most painless way to do it.

Answer 5

NSSortDescriptor  *sort = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"_strPrice"
                                                 ascending:sortFlag selector:@selector(localizedStandardCompare:)] ;

Answer 6

For NSMutableArray, use the sortUsingSelector method. It sorts it-place, without creating a new instance.