Using table.sort() on string indexes doesn't work

[RomDino]

local tab = {}
tab['hello'] = 4
tab['bing'] = 8
tab['yay'] = 7
tab['heasf'] = 3
tab['badhng'] = 2
tab['yshdfy'] = 1

table.sort(tab)

for i,v in pairs(tab) do
	print(tab[i])
end

Output:

If table.sort doesn’t support string indexes, is there another way I can use to sort these string indexes out from big to small?

[Legoracer (xyz)]

You can’t sort keys, only indexes.

[Automationeer (Eleanor)]

From the Developer Hub

Sorts elements of array t in a given order, from t[1] to t[#t]. If comp is given, then it must be a function that receives two elements and returns true when the first element must come before the second in the final order (so that not comp(t[i+1],t[i]) will be true after the sort). If comp is not given, then the standard Lua operator < is used instead.

It only works with arrays, not dictionaries.

---

Having a long look at this, there isn’t really a way to solve this issue easily. What’s your specific use case for table.sort that requires a dictionary?

[RomDino]

To sort the players’ scores

local plrs = {}
plrs['coolboy123'] = 216
plrs['funfungamers'] = 683
plrs['asdasdasd'] = 120

[Automationeer (Eleanor)]

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way around this. Dictionaries, unlike arrays, cannot have an order.

Solution 1 Convert to Array

You’ll need to convert it to arrays like this.

local players = {
 {'coolboy123', 216},
 {'funfungamers', 683},
 {'asdasdasd', 120}
}

And then sort the table with the following code:

table.sort(players, function(a, b)
	return a[2] > b[2]
end)

Our table is now:

funfungamers 683
coolboy123 216
asdasdasd 120

Solution 2 spairs

Credit to this StackOverflow post

Here’s a modified version of pairs- called spairs
(This is in a modulescript)

return function (t, order)
    -- collect the keys
    local keys = {}
    for k in pairs(t) do keys[#keys+1] = k end

    -- if order function given, sort by it by passing the table and keys a, b,
    -- otherwise just sort the keys 
    if order then
        table.sort(keys, function(a,b) return order(t, a, b) end)
    else
        table.sort(keys)
    end

    -- return the iterator function
    local i = 0
    return function()
        i = i + 1
        if keys[i] then
            return keys[i], t[keys[i]]
        end
    end
end

Here’s an example use:

local spairs = require(script.spairs)

local plrs = {}
plrs['coolboy123'] = 216
plrs['funfungamers'] = 683
plrs['asdasdasd'] = 120

local function order(t, a, b)
	return t[b] < t[a]
end

for i,v in spairs(plrs, order) do
	print(i, v)
end

Our output is as expected.

funfungamers 683
coolboy123 216
asdasdasd 120