Don't know how to use the length property on a string in a function

Question

I'm at a loss... searched my notes, internet and can't figure this one out... Sorting array by length of strings. I can sort but don't know how to incorporate a length of strings into function.

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title> JavaScript Foundations: Arrays</title>
    <style>
      html {
        background: #FAFAFA;
        font-family: sans-serif;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>JavaScript Foundations</h1>
    <h2>Arrays: Methods Part 1</h2>
    <script>
      var saying1 = ["The", "quick", "brown", "fox", "jumps", "over", "the", "lazy", "dog"];
      var saying2 = ["The", "quick", "brown", "fox", "jumped", "over", "the", "lazy", "dog's", "back"];
      saying1.reverse();
      saying2.sort(function (str.length, a, b){
        return a - b
      });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Answer 1 · 2015-01-28T07:14:28Z

January 28, 2015 7:14am

The sort method takes a function with two parameters which are the two items being compared. Returning a negative value means the first item passed is less than the second, equal means they are the same and positive means the first item is larger. This works perfectly for string length comparison, so your code should look like:

saying2.sort(function (a, b){
        return a.length - b.length;
      });

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Cynthia DiFabion

Cynthia DiFabion

Don't know how to use the length property on a string in a function

1 Answer

Ian Hattendorf

Ian Hattendorf