Improving performance while sorting a JavaScript Object

Disclaimer: I don't know anything about javascript

If you have a construct like

if (condition){
   return someValue;
} else { 
   return someOtherValue;
}

the else can be omited, because if the first condition is true the else is never reached.

So your code could be refactored to

filtered.sort(function (a, b) {
  if (!b.sortdist) { return -1; }
  if (!a.sortdist || a.sortdist > b.sortdist) { return 1; }
  return -1;
});  

which doesn't improve the performance, but I don't see anything to make your code faster.

Your results can be one of two. You can simplify the code by trying to meet one condition and return the expected result, otherwise, throw up the other result. In this case, your code only returns 1 when:

• a.sortdist doesn't exist.
• a.sortdist > b.sortdist.

...and -1 for all others. Thus your code can be simplified as:

filtered.sort(function (a, b) {
  return (!a.sortdist || a.sortdist > b.sortdist) ? 1 : -1;
});

As for performance, I suppose you could have negligible performance gain because you're not accessing props that much, and you're making the JS run less conditions. But for readability, this one's much more clearer.