.toSorted()

The .toSorted() method takes an array and returns a new array with the elements sorted in ascending order. It does not mutate the original array. All undefined elements are sorted to the end of the array.

The sorting is done by converting array elements to strings and comparing them by Unicode code point value.

Syntax

// Functionless

array.toSorted();

// Arrow function
// 'a' is the first element for comparison and 'b' is the second.

array.toSorted((a, b) => { /* Code for a compare function. */ });

// Compare function
// 'compareFn' specifies a function that defines the sort order.

function compareFn() {
  /* Code for a compare function. */
};

array.toSorted(compareFn);

//  Inline compare function

array.toSorted(function compareFn(a, b) { /* … */ });

Example

In the example below, the .toSorted() method is applied to the arrays sports and numbers.

const sports = [
  'baseball',
  'basketball',
  'tennis',
  'pickleball',
  undefined,
  '',
];
const numbers = [-3, 4, 1, 9, 3, 2, 1, 200, 2159.2, 959, undefined, ''];

let sportsSorted = sports.toSorted();
let numbersSorted = numbers.toSorted();

console.log('Sports: ' + sportsSorted);
console.log('Numbers: ' + numbersSorted);

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Which outputs:

Sports: ,baseball,basketball,pickleball,tennis,
Numbers: ,-3,1,1,2,200,2159.2,3,4,9,959,

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sports was sorted alphabetically but numbers was sorted by unicode value. Remember that toSorted() converts elements to strings and compares them using Unicode code point value.

Additionally, undefined values were sorted to the end and empty strings (Unicode value of 0) were sorted to the beginning for both arrays.

To sort by numerical values, we require a comparison function. The code below takes the numbers array and sorts it two ways - ascending then descending. It then saves the new arrays to two variables and logs those.

const numbers = [-3, 4, 1, 9, 3, 2, 1, 200, 959, 2159.2];

let ascending = numbers.toSorted(function compareFn(a, b) {
  return a - b;
});

let descending = numbers.toSorted(function compareFn(a, b) {
  return b - a;
});

console.log('Numbers Ascending: ' + ascending);
console.log('Numbers Descending: ' + descending);

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Which outputs:

Numbers Ascending: -3,1,1,2,3,4,9,200,959,2159.2
Numbers Descending: 2159.2,959,200,9,4,3,2,1,1,-3

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The following example demonstrates the use of an arrow function in the .toSorted() method:

// Array of book objects
const books = [
  { title: 'The Hobbit', author: 'J.R.R. Tolkien' },
  { title: '1984', author: 'George Orwell' },
  { title: 'Pride and Prejudice', author: 'Jane Austen' },
  { title: 'To Kill a Mockingbird', author: 'Harper Lee' },
];

// Using an arrow function to sort books by their title
let sortedBooks = books.toSorted((a, b) =>
  a.title < b.title ? -1 : a.title > b.title ? 1 : 0
);

console.log('Sorted Books by Title:');
sortedBooks.forEach((book) => console.log(book.title + ' by ' + book.author));

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The example above will result in the following output:

Sorted Books by Title:
1984 by George Orwell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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Note: The toSorted() method only works with Node.js Version 20 or above. Please ensure that your compiler supports that or else it will result in an error.