How to Sort an Array Alphabetically in JavaScript

Arrays are a great data structure for storing a collection of items in a single variable.

Oftentimes, the array will not be in alphabetical order but you need it in that order.

In this post, we'll learn how to sort an array alphabetically in JavaScript.

How to sort an array alphabetically in JavaScript

Let's start with an array that is not in alphabetical order.

JAVASCRIPT
const array = ["c", "a", "b"];

console.log(array);

BASH
[ "c", "a", "b" ]

To sort this array, we will use the built-in sort method.

This method takes a callback function as an argument and sorts the array based on the return value of the callback function.

If the callback function returns a negative number, the first element will be sorted before the second element.

Let's use the localeCompare method to sort the array.

JAVASCRIPT
const array = ["c", "a", "b"];

array.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b));

console.log(array);

BASH
[ "a", "b", "c" ]

This works so elegantly because the localeCompare method returns a negative number if a is before b and a positive number if a is after b, which is exactly what the sort method expects.

This also works if you are working with an array of objects:

JAVASCRIPT
const array = [
    { name: "c" },
    { name: "a" },
    { name: "b" }
];

array.sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name));

console.log(array);

BASH
0: {name: 'a'}
1: {name: 'b'}
2: {name: 'c'}

Either way, you end up with an array in alphabetical order which you can use further in your program.

Conclusion

In this post, we learned how to sort an array alphabetically in JavaScript.

Simply use the sort method on the element, either directly or on an element's property, to tell the method how to order the elements.

Thanks for reading and happy coding!

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