Sorting of Arrays

Sorting is the comparison of two elements by a specific criterion. This criterion is by default provided by Ruby but can be defined by the programmer.

The <=> Operator

The <=> operator compares two values of the same type and returns -1, 0 or 1, respectively if the object on the left is less than, equal or greater than the object on the right. If two objects cannot be compared (are not of the same type), nil is returned.

  2 <=> 1   # => 1
  1 <=> 2   # => -1
  2 <=> 2   # => 0
'b' <=> 'a' # => 1
'a' <=> 'b' # => -1
'b' <=> 'b' # => 0
  1 <=> 'a' # => nil

Sorting Order

Integer objects are sorted in ascending order.

String objects are sorted using the ASCII table. In the ASCII table, the following rules apply:

• Uppercase letters before lowercase letters
• Digits and most punctuation before letters
• Extended ASCII table after the main ASCII table

Multi-character strings are compared character by character.