From: Paul <tester.paul@...>
Date: 2010-09-23T13:30:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Sorting problem with an Array of Arrays

Hi Jeremy, thanks for the reply.

On Sep 22, 6:54 pm, Jeremy Bopp <jer...@bopp.net> wrote:

> > You could define a class to represent each of your inner array elements.
> >  That class could then define the <=> method in which you could compare
> > each item in the order you desire.  Then your outer array, consisting of
> > instances of your class, could be trivially sorted with Array#sort.

I'm afraid I don't understand what you are saying here.  All I
understood was "could be trivially sorted with Array#sort."  I don't
understand classes.


> Silly me.  You can also pass a block to the Array#sort method.  That
> block will receive 2 arguments which you may then compare as you wish,
> returning -1 if the first argument sorts before the last, 0 if they are
> equal, and 1 if the last argument sorts before the first.
>
> -Jeremy

Do you have an example of what this might look like?  To clarify what
I want to see, here is how the data should be sorted:

[["ABC-1", 1271768400, 2],
 ["DEF-1", 1271772000, 1],
 ["ABC-2", 1271773800, 1],
 ["AAA-1", 1271862000, 2],
 ["ABC-3", 1271863200, 2],
 ["ABC-4", 1271869200, 2]]

When sorted correctly, I can see the data input problem with the
'ABC-3' time stamp.  The label sort is important except when the
labels change, then they need to be sorted numerically.