Function that compares 2 alpha-numeric values?

Does anyone have a code snippet to compare those values so I can sort
the array of alpha-numeric values that include both characters and
integers in it?

I.e., if we have values like 4236 and 123234, I want 4236 to be second
because 4 is bigger than 1 rather than using the numeric comparison.
The strings can include character values and strings. Basically, I have
the bubble sort function, the question is how to compare those types of
strings in the alpha-numeric order.

i.e.,

A83745
B34974
127734
34456
788

I looked all over the web thinking that this simple question would be
answered somewhere, but could not find the answer. Please help.

Thanks!

re: Function that compares 2 alpha-numeric values?

success_ny@yahoo.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone have a code snippet to compare those values so I can sort
> the array of alpha-numeric values that include both characters and
> integers in it?
>
> I.e., if we have values like 4236 and 123234, I want 4236 to be second
> because 4 is bigger than 1 rather than using the numeric comparison.
> The strings can include character values and strings. Basically, I have
> the bubble sort function, the question is how to compare those types of
> strings in the alpha-numeric order.
>
> i.e.,
>
> A83745
> B34974
> 127734
> 34456
> 788
>
> I looked all over the web thinking that this simple question would be[/color]


The time I wrote this script (a while ago) I was crying for Perl with
his "cmp" and shuttle <=> Get's really "if'y" in JavaScript w/o them
:-)


function alfanum(a,b) {
var result = 0;
if ((typeof(a)=='number')&&(typeof(b)=='number')) {
result = a-b;
}
else if ((typeof(a)=='string')&&(typeof(b)=='string')) {
if (a < b) {result = -1;}
else if (a > b) {result = 1;}
else {result = 0;}
}
else if (typeof(a)=='string'){
result = 1;
}
else {
result = -1
}
return result;
}

var arr = [9,'A',8,'B',7,'C',6,'D',5,'E',4,'F',3,'G',2,'H',1];

alert(arr.sort(alfanum));

re: Function that compares 2 alpha-numeric values?

JRS: In article <1121960567.218840.181840@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>
, dated Thu, 21 Jul 2005 08:42:47, seen in news:comp.lang.javascript,
success_ny@yahoo.com posted :[color=blue]
>Does anyone have a code snippet to compare those values so I can sort
>the array of alpha-numeric values that include both characters and
>integers in it?
>
>I.e., if we have values like 4236 and 123234, I want 4236 to be second
>because 4 is bigger than 1 rather than using the numeric comparison.
>The strings can include character values and strings. Basically, I have
>the bubble sort function, the question is how to compare those types of
>strings in the alpha-numeric order.
>
>i.e.,
>
>A83745
>B34974
>127734
>34456
>788
>
>I looked all over the web thinking that this simple question would be
>answered somewhere, but could not find the answer. Please help.[/color]

As you've looked all over the Web I assume that there is no need to
repeat what you found on my Web site.

The default array sort would be to treat letters as bigger than digits;
no added code would be needed. That would give 12 34 78 A8 B3. You
don't need to write and download a sort algorithm. Use that order if
you can.

How can a string include a string?

You need to do one of two things : write a comparison function for
array.sort to use, or transform your data so that it will sort in the
right order, de-transforming afterwards. Since array.sort on a list of
N items will call the sort function >0(N) times, you should transform
the data if N is large.

The simplest transform might be to take each character of a string in
turn (I assume less than 240 possibilities), look up its rank in a
priority list, encode that as two Hex characters after adding 16, pad
with a "character" 00, and append the original data so that de-
transformation is just a substring operation.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v4.00 IE 4 ©
<URL:http://www.jibbering.com/faq/> JL/RC: FAQ of news:comp.lang.javascript
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-index.htm> jscr maths, dates, sources.
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> TP/BP/Delphi/jscr/&c, FAQ items, links.

re: Function that compares 2 alpha-numeric values?

success_ny@yahoo.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone have a code snippet to compare those values so I can sort
> the array of alpha-numeric values that include both characters and
> integers in it?
>
> I.e., if we have values like 4236 and 123234, I want 4236 to be second
> because 4 is bigger than 1 rather than using the numeric comparison.
> The strings can include character values and strings. Basically, I have
> the bubble sort function, the question is how to compare those types of
> strings in the alpha-numeric order.
>
> i.e.,
>
> A83745
> B34974
> 127734
> 34456
> 788
>
> I looked all over the web thinking that this simple question would be
> answered somewhere, but could not find the answer. Please help.
>
> Thanks![/color]

Try a loop over the whole set first to separate the numeric from the
alphas with isNan. Run a sort on the numbers array, then a sort on the
alpha array. Add the sort alpha array elements to the end of the
numeric array.

http://www.askblax.com