array of hashes sort by - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have a big array of hashes:
array = [
{color: '5 absolute', ... },
{color: '5.0', ... },
{color: '5.1', ... },
{color: 'last', ... },
{color: '50', ... },
{color: '5 elite', ... },
{color: 'edge'}
]
I need colors to ordered:
5 absolute
5 elite
5.0
5.1
50
edge
last
The priority is:
first going spaces ' ',
then dots '.',
then digits '7',
then other 'string'
This is like SQL activerecord analog query, but I don't want that difficult query in the background. I want this logic. How can I do this using AR query?

Answer 1

You could always just sort the array of hashes.
array.map{|h| h[:color]}.sort
=> ["5 absolute", "5 elite", "5.0", "5.1", "50", "edge", "last"]
The following first sorts by number and then by the string after the number.
array = [{color: '5 absolute'}, {color: '5.0'}, {color: '5.1'},
{color: 'last'}, {color: '50'}, {color: '5 elite'},
{color: 'edge'}, {color: '6 absolute'}, {color: '7'}]
array.map{|h| h[:color]}.sort_by do |s|
n = s.to_f
if n == 0 && s.match(/\d/).nil?
n = Float::INFINITY
end
[n, s.split(" ")[-1]]
end
=> ["5.0", "5 absolute", "5 elite", "5.1", "6 absolute", "7", "50", "edge", "last"]

Answer 2

so like this?
h = [{:color=>"5 absolute"},
{:color=>"5.0"},
{:color=>"5.1"},
{:color=>"last"},
{:color=>"50"},
{:color=>"5 elite"},
{:color=>"edge"}]
h.map(&:values).flatten.sort
# => ["5 absolute", "5 elite", "5.0", "5.1", "50", "edge", "last"]
or all the other answers...

Answer 3

From you question it is very hard to tell what you want. Especially since the order you ask for is exactly the same one a normal sort would create.
I any case, here is a way of creating a "custom sort" order the way you wanted. The difference between this and a regular sort is that in this sort can make certain types of characters or sets of characters triumph others.
array = [
{color: '5 absolute'},
{color: '5.0'},
{color: '50 hello'},
{color: 'edge'}
]
p array.sort_by{|x| x[:color]} #=> [{:color=>"5 absolute"}, {:color=>"5.0"}, {:color=>"50 hello"}, {:color=>"edge"}]
# '50 hello' is after '5.0' as . is smaller than 0.
Solving this problem is a bit tricky, here is how I would do it:
# Create a custom sort order using regexp:
# [spaces, dots, digits, words, line_endings]
order = [/\s+/,/\./,/\d+/,/\w+/,/$/]
# Create a union to use in a scan:
regex_union = Regexp.union(*order)
# Create a function that maps the capture in the scan to the index in the custom sort order:
custom_sort_order = ->x{
x[:color].scan(regex_union).map{|x| [order.index{|y|x=~y}, x]}.transpose
}
#Sort:
p array.sort_by{|x| custom_sort_order[x]}
# => [{:color=>"5 absolute"}, {:color=>"50 hello"}, {:color=>"5.0"}, {:color=>"edge"}]