Array sorting issue

[Gibson221]

I'm attempting to sort an array, which I've loaded from a sharedobject location. I've performed a simple sort on it, using a 'temp' string as a means of swapping items and it's saved the new array list in the process.

I want to be able to sort the array, but not overwrite the existing array with the new sorted order in the process, is there any way I can achieve this?



Thanks

[samac1068]

Did you use the sort functions available with Array?

[ZippyDee]

just create a new array and set it to the unsorted array. Then just sort that one.

[Gibson221]

Yeah, its part of my coursework and I'm to demonstrate an array sort algorithmically.


In terms of duplicating the array, ZippyDee, I tried something like that:



oldArray = dataStore.data.arraysort


var copyArray:Array = new Array();


copyArray = oldArray


then I used copyArray in the sort, but because its orginally equal to the oldArray, the oldArray gets overwritten as well

I'm probably missing something here and being really stupid, but i cant seem to figure this out...


thanks again

[EddiE_K2003]

Ah, good old array copy . If you want to copy an array, the quickest way is to use slice(0) or concat()

This is what you're looking for:

myArray = [5,2,1,4,9,7];
myNewArray = myArray.slice(0);
myNewArray = myNewArray.sort();

trace (myArray);
trace (myNewArray);

You can do more reading here:
http://swingpants.com/2009/03/12/fas...cat-or-slice0/

Have fun!

[Gibson221]

Ah, that's fantastic Thank you, it worked