I am trying to sort an array from lowest to highest value.

the example below shows it already sorted in this manner

var array = ["-394","-275","-156","-37","82","201","320","439","558","677","796"];

However when I do this:

var array = ["-394", "-275", "-156", "-37", "82", "201", "320", "439", "558", "677", "796"];
array.sort(function(a, b) {
  return a.localeCompare(b, undefined, {
    numeric: true
  })
});
console.log(array);

I am trying to sort an array from lowest to highest value.

the example below shows it already sorted in this manner

var array = ["-394","-275","-156","-37","82","201","320","439","558","677","796"];

However when I do this:

var array = ["-394", "-275", "-156", "-37", "82", "201", "320", "439", "558", "677", "796"];
array.sort(function(a, b) {
  return a.localeCompare(b, undefined, {
    numeric: true
  })
});
console.log(array);

This is returned (i'm not sure what sorting has occurred):

["-37", "-156", "-275", "-394", "82", "201", "320", "439", "558", "677", "796"]

I've looked at:

https://developer.mozilla/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/localeCompare

but it doesn't seem to mentioned anything specifically about handling negative numbers.

What is the correct way to sort an array of numbers that includes negative values?

• javascript
• arrays

2 Answers 2

Because your array items can be coerced to numbers directly, why not do that instead?

var array = ["-394","-275","-156","-37","82","201","320","439","558","677","796"];
array.sort(function(a,b) { return a - b } );
console.log(array);

The a - b, which uses the subtraction operator, will coerce the expressions on both sides to numbers.

Numeric collation unfortunately does not take into account - signs. Your current code results in the sorter sorting - numbers before the numbers without - before them (because - es before numbers, lexiographically).

console.log('-'.charCodeAt());
console.log('0'.charCodeAt());

So with

  "-37",
  "-156",
  "-275",
  "-394",

37 es before 156, which es before 275, which es before 394. (The same thing is happening with the positive numbers, they just all e afterwards).

Just use sort - all your items can be implicitly converted to numbers.

var array = ["-394","-275","-156","-37","82","201","320","439","558","677","796"];
const res = array.sort((a, b) => a - b);
console.log(res);

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