CocoaDev

I am a beginner at this so sorry in advance for dificulties explaining this.

I have an NSMutableArray with just numbers, and I have been trying to find out how to sort them. I used the addObject method and added NSNumbers. Is there anyway I can sort them before displaying the information on a table or textview?

Thanks,

Darwin

It is possible to sort a mutable array in-place, using the following selectors:

� sortUsingDescriptors: � sortUsingFunction:context: � sortUsingSelector:

So, for example, assuming that the objects you have inserted into the array respond to the compare: selector, you can sort a mutable array using [myArray sortUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];. The relevant page at Apple’s website is: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/ObjC_classic/Classes/NSMutableArray.html

I initially posted a silly answer. I removed some of it, but here some of what I wrote, because it is complementary.

You can get a new NSArray with the following

sortedArray=[unsortedArray sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];

sortedArray will be an     NSArray except if you do:

sortedArray=[NSMutableArray arrayWithArray: [unsortedArray sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)] ];

Also, sortedArray will be a DIFFERENT object, i.e. different pointer, even if you do:

theArray=[NSMutableArray arrayWithArray: [theArray sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)] ];

, in which case you would want to be careful with retain counts for the original theArray.