jQuery DOM Manipulation Sorting elements

Example

To sort elements efficiently (all at once and with minimal DOM interruption), we need to:

1. Find the elements
2. Sort based on a set condition
3. Insert back in the DOM

<ul id='my-color-list'>
    <li class="disabled">Red</li>
    <li>Green</li>
    <li class="disabled">Purple</li>
    <li>Orange</li>
</ul>

1. Find them - .children() or .find()

   This will give us back an Array-like object to play with.

   var $myColorList = $('#my-color-list');
   
   // Elements one layer deep get .children(), any deeper go with .find()
   var $colors = $myColorList.children('li');
   

2. Re-arrange them - Array.prototype.sort()

   This is currently setup to return the elements in Ascending order based on the HTML content (aka their colors).

   /**
    * Bind $colors to the sort method so we don't have to travel up
    * all these properties more than once.
    */
   var sortList = Array.prototype.sort.bind($colors);
   
   sortList(function ( a, b ) {
   
       // Cache inner content from the first element (a) and the next sibling (b)
       var aText = a.innerHTML;
       var bText = b.innerHTML;
    
       // Returning -1 will place element `a` before element `b`
       if ( aText < bText ) {
           return -1;
       }
   
       // Returning 1 will do the opposite
       if ( aText > bText ) {
           return 1;
       }
   
       // Returning 0 leaves them as-is
       return 0;
   });
   

3. Insert them - .append()

   Note that we don't need to detach the elements first - append() will move elements that already exist in the DOM, so we won't have extra copies

   // Put it right back where we got it
   $myColorList.append($colors);
   

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Make it cute

Add a sort button

<!-- previous HTML above -->
<button type='button' id='btn-sort'>
    Sort
</button>

Set the initial value of sorting direction

var ascending = true;

Cache our DOM elements and sortList() out here to minimize our DOM processing

var $myColorList = $('#my-color-list');
var $colors = $myColorList.children('li');
var sortList = Array.prototype.sort.bind($colors);

Wrap everything up in a doSort() function

// Put the sortList() and detach/append calls in this portable little thing
var doSort = function ( ascending ) {

    sortList(function ( a, b ) {
        // ...
    });

    $myColorList.append($colors);
};

Add click handler for $('#btn-sort')

$('#btn-sort').on('click', function () {
    // Run the sort and pass in the direction value
    doSort(ascending);

    // Toggle direction and save
    ascending = !ascending;
});

All together now

var ascending = true;

var $myColorList = $('#my-color-list');
var $colors = $myColorList.children('li');
var sortList = Array.prototype.sort.bind($colors);

var doSort = function ( ascending ) {
    
    sortList(function ( a, b ) {

        var aText = a.innerHTML;
        var bText = b.innerHTML;

        if ( aText < bText ) {
            return ascending ? -1 : 1;
        }

        if ( aText > bText ) {
            return ascending ? 1 : -1;
        }

        return 0;
    });
    
    $myColorList.append($colors);

};

$('#btn-sort').on('click', function () {
    doSort(ascending);
    ascending = !ascending;
});

---

Bonus

Multi-level sorting (grouping sorted elements)

// ...

var doSort = function ( ascending ) {

    sortList(function ( a, b ) {

        // ...initial sorting...

    }).sort(function ( a, b ) {
        
        // We take the returned items and sort them once more
        var aClass = a.className;
        var bClass = b.className;
        
        // Let's group the disabled items together and put them at the end

        /**
         * If the two elements being compared have the same class
         * then there's no need to move anything.
         */
        if ( aClass !== bClass ) {
            return aClass === 'disabled' ? 1 : -1;
        }
        return 0;
    });

    // And finalize with re-insert
    $myColorList.append($colors);
};

// ...

Can you take it one step further?

Add another button to toggle disabled group sorting

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MDN - Array.prototype.sort()