Help Sorting Table

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

Hello.
I am trying to sort a table from lowest index to highest. Although, there are gaps in the indexes. For instance:

local table = {
    [1] = "hello",
    [25] = "how",
    [985] = "doing",
    [256] = "are",
    [1789] = "?",
    [127] = "you"
}

I would like to sort a table similar to this to look like this:

local table = {
    [1] = "hello",
    [25] = "how",
    [127] = "you",
    [256] = "are",
    [985] = "doing",
    [1789] = "?"
}

How would I go about this via scripting?

#2

One way, sort by the founded index of the value. If you have multiple items in the table which have the same value, this method most likely won’t work

table.sort(Table, function(a, b)
    return table.find(Table,a) < table.find(Table,b)
end)

Another way, sort it’s indices & individually replace the value accordingly to the sorted table of indices

local Indices = {}
for Index, _ in pairs(Table) do
	table.insert(Indices, Index)
end
table.sort(Indices, function(a,b)
	return a < b
end)
for _, Index in pairs(Indices) do
	local Value = Table[Index]
	Table[Index] = nil
	Table[Index] = Value
end
#3

While this does work for arrays, this does not work for dictionaries.

#4

You can sort dictionaries too, just compare their indices with their ASCII values…

local Indices = {}
for Index, _ in pairs(Dictionary) do
	table.insert(Indices, Index) 
end
table.sort(Indices, function(a,b)
	return a:lower() < b:lower()
end)
for _, Index in pairs(Indices) do
	local Value = Dictionary[Index]
	Dictionary[Index] = nil
	Dictionary[Index] = Value
end
1 Like
#5

This does not work for the example I provided.

#6

Do you want to sort both array indices & dictionary indices in the same table?

#7

Okay so I have a dictionary where I want to sort it in order from smallest index to highest index, and I want to retain the values of each index. The method you first provided made the value of the index the old index and got rid of the old value. The second method you provided errored with my provided table.

#8

So you want to get the sorted version of the table but keep the original table aswell? This will work for both arrays and dictionaries…

local function SortTable(Table)
	local Indices = {}
	local SortedTable = {}
	for Index, _ in pairs(Table) do
		table.insert(Indices, Index) 
	end
	table.sort(Indices, function(a,b)
		return (type(a)=="string"and type(b) == "string" and a:lower() < b:lower())
		or a < b
	end)
	for _, Index in pairs(Indices) do
		local Value = Table[Index]
		SortedTable[Index] = Value
	end
	return SortedTable
end
#9

Look at my original post. I am trying to turn the first table I provided in the second one I provided using code. No strings to sort. Just numbers.

#10 
local function SortTable(Table)
	local Indices = {}
	local SortedTable = {}
	for Index, _ in pairs(Table) do
		table.insert(Indices, Index) 
	end
	table.sort(Indices, function(a,b)
		return a < b
	end)
	for _, Index in pairs(Indices) do
		local Value = Table[Index]
		SortedTable[Index] = Value
	end
	return SortedTable
end
#11

That still is not doing what I asked for. It’s not even sorting it anymore.

image
image581Ă—649 28.4 KB

#12

I don’t understand?? It works perfectly fine for me…
image

#13

Simply convert it into an array:

local MyTab = {
{1,"Hello"},-- value,string
{2,"Hey"}

}

table.sort(MyTab,function(a,b)
return a[1] > b[1]
end)

And use table.sort to sort the first values

#14

Still does not work for me whatsoever

image
image449Ă—510 25.8 KB

#15 
local function SortTable(Table)
	local SortedTable = {}
	for i, v in pairs(Table) do
		table.insert(SortedTable,{i,v})
	end
	table.sort(SortedTable, function(a,b)
		return a[1] < b[1]
	end)
	for index, item in pairs(SortedTable) do
        if item and type(item) ~= "table" then continue end
		SortedTable[item[1]] = item[2]
		if index ~= item[1] then
            SortedTable[index] = nil
        end
	end
	return SortedTable
end
#16 
local function SortTable(Table)
	local Indices = {}
	local SortedTable = {}
	for Index, _ in pairs(Table) do
		table.insert(Indices, Index) 
	end
	table.sort(Indices, function(a,b)
		return a < b
	end)
	for _, Index in pairs(Indices) do
		local Value = Table[Index]
		SortedTable[Index] = Value
	end
	return SortedTable
end

local Table = {
	[1] = "hello",
	[25] = "how",
	[985] = "doing",
	[256] = "are",
	[1789] = "?",
	[127] = "you"
}
for index, value in pairs(SortTable(Table)) do 
	print(index,value)
end

image
image802Ă—88 71.1 KB

#17

I edited the script, just try copying it again and see if it works…

#18

No error this time, but it’s still not in order
image