instance method

Array#sort

() -> ::Array[Elem]

() { (Elem a, Elem b) -> ::Integer } -> ::Array[Elem]

sort → new_array

sort {|a, b| ... } → new_array

VALUE
rb_ary_sort(VALUE ary)
{
    ary = rb_ary_dup(ary);
    rb_ary_sort_bang(ary);
    return ary;
}

Returns a new array containing the elements of self, sorted.

With no block given, compares elements using operator <=> (see Object#<=>):

Example

[0, 2, 3, 1].sort # => [0, 1, 2, 3]

With a block given, calls the block with each combination of pairs of elements from self; for each pair a and b, the block should return a numeric:

Negative when b is to follow a.
Zero when a and b are equivalent.
Positive when a is to follow b.

Example:

Example

a = [3, 2, 0, 1]
a.sort {|a, b| a <=> b } # => [0, 1, 2, 3]
a.sort {|a, b| b <=> a } # => [3, 2, 1, 0]

When the block returns zero, the order for a and b is indeterminate, and may be unstable.

See an example in Numeric#nonzero? for the idiom to sort more complex structure.

Related: see Methods for Fetching.

See also #sort! #slice! #slice #sort_by! also in 4.1 · 3.4 · 3.3 · 3.2 · 3.1 · 3.0

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