Sorting a multi-dimensional array in Ruby
Sorting multidimensional works with a few caveats
2017-12-01
Recently at work, I've been doing some work on a project written in Ruby to enable an endpoint to paginate. Something we need for our mobile apps so we can make a list more performant. In the process of making this work, I ran into a problem with trying to sort a multi-dimensional array. Ruby will look at each index in the nested arrays and compare their indexes to determine which array should come first.
my_array = [
[9, 8, 7],
[6, 5, 4],
[3, 2, 1]
]
my_array.sort!
# [
# [3, 2, 1],
# [6, 5, 4],
# [9, 8, 7]
# ]
When we sort the array, it will not sort any nested array items, only use them to determine their ordering in the array being sorted. It does this by using the <=> spaceship operator. This operator will return -1, 0, or 1 and works out of the box for arrays. If the first index in both nested arrays is the same, it will move on to the next items to compare.
my_array = [
[2, 1],
[2, 0]
]
my_array.sort!
# [
# [2, 0],
# [2, 1]
# ]
This is a great productivity win since we don't have to write a custom comparison method to handle multi-dimensional arrays. But there are a few caveats. When comparing to values they must be comparable. For example 1 <=> '1' are not comparable in ruby. This will return nil. You must ensure that the types of items being compared are comparable using the spaceship operator.
my_array = [
[2, '1'],
[2, '0']
]
my_array.sort!
# [
# [2, '0'],
# [2, '1']
# ]
Which surfaces another tough problem. The case where items in your array can be nil. If one of your arrays contains nil, the containing array cannot be compared to another array.
my_array = [
[nil, 1],
[2, 3]
]
my_array.sort!
# Argument Error: comparison of array with array failed
In this case, we have to write our own sorting function that can handle cases with nil. If you know the dimensions of your arrays then it can be fairly straightforward, but when you don't it requires a little more work. In my case, I knew that the array I was sorting would only contain other arrays, but beyond that the dimensions were unknown. Here is the solution I came up with.
nil_compare = Proc.new do |a,b|
length = [a.size, b.size].min
compare_value = 0
length.times { |i|
if a[i].nil? && b[i].nil?
next
elsif a[i].nil?
compare_value = 1
elsif b[i].nil?
compare_value = -1
elsif a[i].kind_of?(Array) && b[i].kind_of?(Array)
compare_value = nil_compare.call(a[i], b[i])
else
compare_value = a[i] <=> b[i]
end
if compare_value != 0
break
end
}
compare_value
end
my_array = [
[nil, 1],
[2, 3]
]
my_array.sort! &nil_compare
# [
# [2, 3],
# [nil, 1]
# ]
Hopefully, this can be helpful for others, as when I was googling for a solution, the only results were for sorting an array where certain items in the array are nil. Whereas I needed something for when nested arrays had nil items.