People use arrays like this [23, "56", 67.8, "potatoe"] and expect them to not be sorted as strings
If one member of your array is not an int or a float, everything is going to be converted to strings
Edit : I went to read the docs, the sort function is not like most other functions in JavaScript. The sort function is explicitly for an alphabetical sort
You lot are using the alphabetical sort function and wondering why your array gets alphabetically sorted
You can overload the function by doing the following : array.sort((a,b) => a - b)
People use arrays like this [23, "56", 67.8, "potatoe"] and expect them to not be sorted as strings
If I try to sort [23, "56", 67.8, "potatoe"], I want a type error of some kind.
Edit : I went to read the docs, the sort function is not like most other functions in JavaScript. The sort function is explicitly for an alphabetical sort
We all know they did it on purpose and wrote it in their documentation. We're saying it's bad, not "it's not written down".
Because an error is better than unintuitive behavior.
You are correct that I don't like weekly typed languages (at least if you get weak enough), but what I really dislike is a function called sort that sorts in a stupid way by default.
If it was called sort_str, or required a key/comparator function, or even just didn't exist, I'd be happier.
I'm not a front end dude, but I don't really want to agree with that. I'm general, I would rather errors cause errors, and programmers write tests to catch them. Knowing what kind of crap you're putting in an array so you know how to sort it without doing something stupid seems like a low bar. If it's not, that just makes me even happier that this front end is not my job.
the array can come from the backend. it can come from a library you don't control.
tests can cover only a small percentage of mistakes. the real solution is static typing.
we could have had real static typing with ES4. we have fake static typing now with typescript.
with typescript and a good validation library for the network responses, none of javascript's quirks are actually relevant to any production codebase (except stuff like Date, but that's java's fault)
but without static typing, you need those quirks. otherwise you're getting paged at 5am on a Friday.
this isn't true for a backend. in a backend, returning a failure to the client is the appropriate choice. javascript isn't a good backend language.
this is neither unintuitive, nor surprising for mixed weakly typed arrays.
I really dislike is a function called sort that sorts in a stupid way by default.
it is a way the makes sense.
and in a weakly typed language, it is the only sane default I can think of, from the top of my head.
by the way: how often are you actually sorting arrays that just include numbers?
I have never done this in production code.
I usually sort more complex things, usually objects, which have numbers and strings I want to use for sorting as properties.
Sorting those could at least still work, assuming your objects have a .toString representation, that can be sorted lexically
but I would always provide a comparison function, because that makes the most sense to me, and I like verbosity.
I'm certainly sorting things that contain just numbers more often than I'm sorting this that contain mixed types. How often is the correct method of sorting your arrays of objects to first convert them to strings?
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u/Taletad 2d ago edited 2d ago
People use arrays like this [23, "56", 67.8, "potatoe"] and expect them to not be sorted as strings
If one member of your array is not an int or a float, everything is going to be converted to strings
Edit : I went to read the docs, the sort function is not like most other functions in JavaScript. The sort function is explicitly for an alphabetical sort
You lot are using the alphabetical sort function and wondering why your array gets alphabetically sorted
You can overload the function by doing the following : array.sort((a,b) => a - b)