Stable Sorting Algorithms in JavaScript

When sorting data, preserving the original order of equal elements is crucial for stable sorting algorithms. In this context, we aim to sort an array of objects with a specific key in a given order while maintaining element order consistency.

Stable Sorting Technique

Interestingly, even non-stable sorting functions can achieve stable sorting. By capturing the initial position of each element before sorting, we can break ties in the sorting comparison using position as a secondary criterion.

Implementation in JavaScript

const sortBy = (arr, key, order) => {
  // Capture element positions
  const positions = arr.map((item, i) => {
    return { item, position: i };
  });

  // Perform sorting
  positions.sort((a, b) => {
    let cmp = a.item[key].localeCompare(b.item[key]);
    if (cmp === 0) {
      // Tiebreaker: sort by position
      cmp = a.position - b.position;
    }
    if (order === "desc") {
      return cmp * -1;
    } else {
      return cmp;
    }
  });

  // Return sorted objects
  return positions.map(position => position.item);
};

Example Usage

const data = [
  { name: "Alice", age: 25 },
  { name: "Bob", age: 30 },
  { name: "Eve", age: 25 },
];

const sortedAscending = sortBy(data, "age", "asc");
console.log(sortedAscending); // [{ name: "Alice", age: 25 }, { name: "Eve", age: 25 }, { name: "Bob", age: 30 }]

const sortedDescending = sortBy(data, "age", "desc");
console.log(sortedDescending); // [{ name: "Bob", age: 30 }, { name: "Eve", age: 25 }, { name: "Alice", age: 25 }]

This technique allows stable sorting in JavaScript, preserving the original order of elements with equal values.