Swift Language Arrays Sorting an Array of Strings

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Example

3.0

The most simple way is to use sorted():

let words = ["Hello", "Bonjour", "Salute", "Ahola"]
let sortedWords = words.sorted()
print(sortedWords) // ["Ahola", "Bonjour", "Hello", "Salute"]

or sort()

var mutableWords = ["Hello", "Bonjour", "Salute", "Ahola"]
mutableWords.sort()
print(mutableWords) // ["Ahola", "Bonjour", "Hello", "Salute"]

You can pass a closure as an argument for sorting:

let words = ["Hello", "Bonjour", "Salute", "Ahola"]
let sortedWords = words.sorted(isOrderedBefore: { $0 > $1 })
print(sortedWords) // ["Salute", "Hello", "Bonjour", "Ahola"]

Alternative syntax with a trailing closure:

let words = ["Hello", "Bonjour", "Salute", "Ahola"]
let sortedWords = words.sorted() { $0 > $1 }
print(sortedWords) // ["Salute", "Hello", "Bonjour", "Ahola"]

But there will be unexpected results if the elements in the array are not consistent:

let words = ["Hello", "bonjour", "Salute", "ahola"]
let unexpected = words.sorted()
print(unexpected) // ["Hello", "Salute", "ahola", "bonjour"]

To address this issue, either sort on a lowercase version of the elements:

let words = ["Hello", "bonjour", "Salute", "ahola"]
let sortedWords = words.sorted { $0.lowercased() < $1.lowercased() }
print(sortedWords) // ["ahola", "bonjour", "Hello", "Salute"]

Or import Foundation and use NSString's comparison methods like caseInsensitiveCompare:

let words = ["Hello", "bonjour", "Salute", "ahola"]
let sortedWords = words.sorted { $0.caseInsensitiveCompare($1) == .orderedAscending }
print(sortedWords) // ["ahola", "bonjour", "Hello", "Salute"]

Alternatively, use localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare, which can manage diacritics.

To properly sort Strings by the numeric value they contain, use compare with the .numeric option:

let files = ["File-42.txt", "File-01.txt", "File-5.txt", "File-007.txt", "File-10.txt"]
let sortedFiles = files.sorted() { $0.compare($1, options: .numeric) == .orderedAscending }
print(sortedFiles) // ["File-01.txt", "File-5.txt", "File-007.txt", "File-10.txt", "File-42.txt"]


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