CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptarraysstringfunctionsorting
Noel Arroyo
Noel Arroyo

Reputation: 11

Sorting one array as a parameter

I've been trying and trying different ways to think outside the box on this one and for some reason I can't get it. 

         function sortByLength(array) {
           for(var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
             for(var n = 0; n < array.length; n++) {
               array.sort(function(i, n) {
                 return i.length - n.length;
               });
             }
           }
           return array;
        }
          
        console.log(sortByLength(["Hello", "Cheese", "Bye"]));
         
        //expecting ["Bye", "Hello", "Cheese"]

I guess I'm trying to figure out:
1. Why is this an infinite loop?
2. Why can't I simply pass in the looped values of i and n, then compare them to sort them by length?

Any clues or help I can get will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 41

Answers (2)

JMP
JMP

Reputation: 4467

You don't actually need the for-loop's. The i and n loop variables aren't the same as the i and n parameters used by the sorting function, so you are effectively sorting the array array.length squared times.

Just write:

function sortByLength(array){
    array.sort(function(i, n){
        return i.length - n.length;
        });
    return array;
}

console.log(sortByLength(["Hello", "Cheese", "Bye"]));

Upvotes: 1

Sergey Kazakov
Sergey Kazakov

Reputation: 36

Why do you try to sort the array n^2 times? It's enough to call sort just once:

sortByLength = function (array){
 array.sort(function(i, n){return i.length - n.length;});
 return array;
}
sortByLength(["Hello", "Cheese", "Bye"]);

(3) ["Bye", "Hello", "Cheese"]

Upvotes: 0

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