How to sort a NSArray alphabetically?

DotSlashSlash picture DotSlashSlash · Aug 29, 2009 · Viewed 219.1k times · Source

How can I sort an array filled with [UIFont familyNames] into alphabetical order?

Answer

Thomas Zoechling picture Thomas Zoechling · Aug 29, 2009

The simplest approach is, to provide a sort selector (Apple's documentation for details)

Objective-C

sortedArray = [anArray sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];

Swift

let descriptor: NSSortDescriptor = NSSortDescriptor(key: "YourKey", ascending: true, selector: "localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:")
let sortedResults: NSArray = temparray.sortedArrayUsingDescriptors([descriptor])

Apple provides several selectors for alphabetic sorting:

  • compare:
  • caseInsensitiveCompare:
  • localizedCompare:
  • localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:
  • localizedStandardCompare:

Swift

var students = ["Kofi", "Abena", "Peter", "Kweku", "Akosua"]
students.sort()
print(students)
// Prints "["Abena", "Akosua", "Kofi", "Kweku", "Peter"]"

Reference