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up vote 1 down vote favorite

I am trying to sort an array of objects with each object containing 

var recent = [{id: "123",age :12,start: "10/17/13 13:07"} , {id: "13",age :62,start: "07/30/13 16:30"}];

Date format is: mm/dd/yy hh:mm

I want to sort in order of date with the most recent first. If date is same it should be sorted on time.

I tried out the below sort function. But it is not working.

recent.sort(function(a,b))
{
    a = new Date(a.start);
    b = new Date(b.start);
    return a-b;
});

Also how should I iterate through the objects for sorting? Something like:

for (var i = 0; i < recent.length; i++)
    {
        recent[i].start.sort(function (a, b)
        {
            a = new Date(a.start);
            b = new Date(b.start);
            return a-b; 
        } );
    }

There can be any number of objects in the array.

share|improve this question
    
Your recent literal is wrong. –  dystroy Oct 17 '13 at 15:14
1  
First block is not valid javascript –  SheetJS Oct 17 '13 at 15:15
    
recent is the name of my array of objects. Can you please elaborate? –  Anthea Oct 17 '13 at 15:16
2  
You need quotes around the date/time. –  Barmar Oct 17 '13 at 15:17
    
You also have an extra parenthesis after the function argument list. Your sort works when I fix that. Is it in the original code, or just a copying error? –  Barmar Oct 17 '13 at 15:22

2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

As a been pointed out in the comments the definition of recent isnt correct javascript.

But assuming the dates are strings:

var recent = [
    {id: 123,age :12,start: "10/17/13 13:07"}, 
    {id: 13,age :62,start: "07/30/13 16:30"}
];

then sort like this:

recent.sort(function(a,b) { 
    return new Date(a.start).getTime() - new Date(b.start).getTime() 
});

More details on sort function from W3Schools

share|improve this answer
    
You can find some useful answers to this topic here: Sort Javascript Object Array By Date –  jherax Nov 5 '14 at 15:35
up vote 0 down vote 
recent.sort(function(a,b) { return new Date(a.start).getTime() - new Date(b.start).getTime() } );
share|improve this answer
1  
The comparison function is supposed to return negative, 0, or positive depending on the relationship between the arguments, not a boolean. –  Barmar Oct 17 '13 at 15:18
    
Well spotted, I've updated my answer. –  Tom Oct 17 '13 at 15:24
    
Subtracting Date objects apparently returns the same thing as subtracting their getTime() values, although I can't find this requirement in any specification. –  Barmar Oct 17 '13 at 15:31
    
Yes, I've noticed that, although getTime() will always be consistent, and since the OP wants the time component to explicitly be used when sorting, it makes sense to be specific. –  Tom Oct 17 '13 at 15:36
    
A bigger compatibility problem may be that parsing mm/dd/yy format is not portable. –  Barmar Oct 17 '13 at 15:37

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