Fast stable sorting algorithm implementation in javascript

It is possible to get a stable sorting from a non-stable sort function.

Before sorting you get the position of all the elements. In your sort condition, if both elements are equal, then you sort by the position.

Tada! You've got a stable sort.

I've written an article about it on my blog if you want to know more about this technique and how to implement it: http://blog.vjeux.com/2010/javascript/javascript-sorting-table.html

I know that this question has been answered for some time, but I happen to have a good stable merge sort implementation for Array and jQuery in my clipboard, so I'll share it in the hopes that some future searchers might find it useful.

It allows you to specify your own comparison function just like the normal Array.sort implementation.

Implementation

// Add stable merge sort to Array and jQuery prototypes
// Note: We wrap it in a closure so it doesn't pollute the global
//       namespace, but we don't put it in $(document).ready, since it's
//       not dependent on the DOM
(function() {

  // expose to Array and jQuery
  Array.prototype.msort = jQuery.fn.msort = msort;

  function msort(compare) {

    var length = this.length,
        middle = Math.floor(length / 2);

    if (!compare) {
      compare = function(left, right) {
        if (left < right) 
          return -1;
        if (left == right)
          return 0;
        else
          return 1;
      };
    }

    if (length < 2)
      return this;

    return merge(
      this.slice(0, middle).msort(compare),
      this.slice(middle, length).msort(compare),
      compare
    );
  }

  function merge(left, right, compare) {

    var result = [];

    while (left.length > 0 || right.length > 0) {
      if (left.length > 0 && right.length > 0) {
        if (compare(left[0], right[0]) <= 0) {
          result.push(left[0]);
          left = left.slice(1);
        }
        else {
          result.push(right[0]);
          right = right.slice(1);
        }
      }
      else if (left.length > 0) {
        result.push(left[0]);
        left = left.slice(1);
      }
      else if (right.length > 0) {
        result.push(right[0]);
        right = right.slice(1);
      }
    }
    return result;
  }
})();

Example Usage

var sorted = [
  'Finger',
  'Sandwich',
  'sandwich',
  '5 pork rinds',
  'a guy named Steve',
  'some noodles',
  'mops and brooms',
  'Potato Chip Brand® chips'
].msort(function(left, right) {
  lval = left.toLowerCase();
  rval = right.toLowerCase();

  console.log(lval, rval);
  if (lval < rval)
    return -1;
  else if (lval == rval)
    return 0;
  else
    return 1;
});

sorted == ["5 pork rinds", "a guy named Steve", "Finger", "mops and brooms", "Potato Chip Brand® chips", "Sandwich", "sandwich", "some noodles"];

Counting Sort is faster than merge sort (it performs in O(n) time) and it is intended for use on integers.

Math.counting_sort = function (m) {
    var i
    var j
    var k
    var step
    var start
    var Output
    var hash
    k = m.length
    Output = new Array ()
    hash = new Array ()
    // start at lowest possible value of m
    start = 0
    step = 1
    // hash all values
    i = 0
    while ( i < k ) {
        var _m = m[i]
        hash [_m] = _m
        i = i + 1
    }
    i = 0
    j = start
    // find all elements within x
    while ( i < k ) {
        while ( j != hash[j] ) {
            j = j + step
        }
        Output [i] = j
        i = i + 1
        j = j + step
    }
    return Output
}

Example:

var uArray = new Array ()<br/>
var sArray = new Array ()<br/><br/>
uArray = [ 10,1,9,2,8,3,7,4,6,5 ]<br/>
sArray = Math.counting_sort ( uArray ) // returns a sorted array

A simple one mergeSort from http://www.stoimen.com/blog/2010/07/02/friday-algorithms-javascript-merge-sort/

var a = [34, 203, 3, 746, 200, 984, 198, 764, 9];

function mergeSort(arr)
{
    if (arr.length < 2)
         return arr;

    var middle = parseInt(arr.length / 2);
    var left   = arr.slice(0, middle);
    var right  = arr.slice(middle, arr.length);

    return merge(mergeSort(left), mergeSort(right));
}

function merge(left, right)
{
     var result = [];

    while (left.length && right.length) {
         if (left[0] <= right[0]) {
             result.push(left.shift());
         } else {
            result.push(right.shift());
         }
    }

    while (left.length)
        result.push(left.shift());

    while (right.length)
        result.push(right.shift());

    return result;
}

console.log(mergeSort(a));

Check this article:

http://www.hedgerwow.com/360/dhtml/js%5Farray%5Fstable%5Fsort.html

It seems that only FF 2.0 and Opera 9 and earlier have a non-stable sort implementation. All other mainstream browsers do.

Will the built in sort function do? http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref%5Fsort.asp