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

You have to create sortDescriptor and then you can sort the nsmutablearray by using sortDescriptor like below.

 let sortDescriptor = NSSortDescriptor(key: "birthDate", ascending: true, selector: #selector(NSString.compare(_:)))
 let array = NSMutableArray(array: self.aryExist.sortedArray(using: [sortDescriptor]))
 print(array)

Answer 2

I did this in iOS 4 using a block. Had to cast the elements of my array from id to my class type. In this case it was a class called Score with a property called points.

Also you need to decide what to do if the elements of your array are not the right type, for this example I just returned NSOrderedSame, however in my code I though an exception.

NSArray *sorted = [_scores sortedArrayUsingComparator:^(id obj1, id obj2){
    if ([obj1 isKindOfClass:[Score class]] && [obj2 isKindOfClass:[Score class]]) {
        Score *s1 = obj1;
        Score *s2 = obj2;

        if (s1.points > s2.points) {
            return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedAscending;
        } else if (s1.points < s2.points) {
            return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedDescending;
        }
    }

    // TODO: default is the same?
    return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedSame;
}];

return sorted;

PS: This is sorting in descending order.

Answer 3

Sort Array In Swift

---

For Swifty Person below is a very clean technique to achieve above goal for globally. Lets have an example custom class of User which have some attributes.

class User: NSObject {
    var id: String?
    var name: String?
    var email: String?
    var createdDate: Date?
}

Now we have an array which we need to sort on the basis of createdDate either ascending and/or descending. So lets add a function for date comparison.

class User: NSObject {
    var id: String?
    var name: String?
    var email: String?
    var createdDate: Date?
    func checkForOrder(_ otherUser: User, _ order: ComparisonResult) -> Bool {
        if let myCreatedDate = self.createdDate, let othersCreatedDate = otherUser.createdDate {
            //This line will compare both date with the order that has been passed.
            return myCreatedDate.compare(othersCreatedDate) == order
        }
        return false
    }
}

Now lets have an extension of Array for User. In simple words lets add some methods only for those Array's which only have User objects in it.

extension Array where Element: User {
    //This method only takes an order type. i.e ComparisonResult.orderedAscending
    func sortUserByDate(_ order: ComparisonResult) -> [User] {
        let sortedArray = self.sorted { (user1, user2) -> Bool in
            return user1.checkForOrder(user2, order)
        }
        return sortedArray
    }
}

Usage for Ascending Order

let sortedArray = someArray.sortUserByDate(.orderedAscending)

---

Usage for Descending Order

let sortedArray = someArray.sortUserByDate(.orderedAscending)

---

Usage for Same Order

let sortedArray = someArray.sortUserByDate(.orderedSame)

---

Above method in extension will only be accessible if the Array is of type [User] || Array<User>

Answer 4

See the NSMutableArray method sortUsingFunction:context:

You will need to set up a compare function which takes two objects (of type Person, since you are comparing two Person objects) and a context parameter.

The two objects are just instances of Person. The third object is a string, e.g. @"birthDate".

This function returns an NSComparisonResult: It returns NSOrderedAscending if PersonA.birthDate < PersonB.birthDate. It will return NSOrderedDescending if PersonA.birthDate > PersonB.birthDate. Finally, it will return NSOrderedSame if PersonA.birthDate == PersonB.birthDate.

This is rough pseudocode; you will need to flesh out what it means for one date to be "less", "more" or "equal" to another date (such as comparing seconds-since-epoch etc.):

NSComparisonResult compare(Person *firstPerson, Person *secondPerson, void *context) {
  if ([firstPerson birthDate] < [secondPerson birthDate])
    return NSOrderedAscending;
  else if ([firstPerson birthDate] > [secondPerson birthDate])
    return NSOrderedDescending;
  else 
    return NSOrderedSame;
}

If you want something more compact, you can use ternary operators:

NSComparisonResult compare(Person *firstPerson, Person *secondPerson, void *context) {
  return ([firstPerson birthDate] < [secondPerson birthDate]) ? NSOrderedAscending : ([firstPerson birthDate] > [secondPerson birthDate]) ? NSOrderedDescending : NSOrderedSame;
}

Inlining could perhaps speed this up a little, if you do this a lot.

Answer 5

Starting in iOS 4 you can also use blocks for sorting.

For this particular example I'm assuming that the objects in your array have a 'position' method, which returns an NSInteger.

NSArray *arrayToSort = where ever you get the array from... ;
NSComparisonResult (^sortBlock)(id, id) = ^(id obj1, id obj2) 
{
    if ([obj1 position] > [obj2 position]) 
    { 
        return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedDescending;
    }
    if ([obj1 position] < [obj2 position]) 
    {
        return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedAscending;
    }
    return (NSComparisonResult)NSOrderedSame;
};
NSArray *sorted = [arrayToSort sortedArrayUsingComparator:sortBlock];

Note: the "sorted" array will be autoreleased.

Answer 6

You can use the following generic method for your purpose. It should solve your issue.

//Called method
-(NSMutableArray*)sortArrayList:(NSMutableArray*)arrDeviceList filterKeyName:(NSString*)sortKeyName ascending:(BOOL)isAscending{
    NSSortDescriptor *sorter = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:sortKeyName ascending:isAscending];
    [arrDeviceList sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sorter]];
    return arrDeviceList;
}

//Calling method
[self sortArrayList:arrSomeList filterKeyName:@"anything like date,name etc" ascending:YES];