Sortsmith

Sortsmith is a flexible sorting library for Ruby that makes complex sorting operations simple and composable. It makes handling common sorting patterns like case-insensitive sorting of hashes and objects easy, while remaining extensible for custom sorting needs.

Features

• Builder pattern for chainable sorting configuration
• Built-in support for case-insensitive sorting
• Hash key and method/attribute sorting
• Flexible transformation pipeline

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "sortsmith"

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install sortsmith

Usage

Basic Sorting

# Sort an array of Strings
users = ["Bob", "Alice", "Carol"]

sorted_users = Sortsmith::Sorter.new(users).sort

# Result: ["Alice", "Bob", "Carol"]

Hash Sorting

# Sort an array of hashes by a key
users = [
  { name: "Carol", age: 35 },
  { name: "Bob", age: 25 },
  { name: "Alice", age: 30 }
]

sorted_users = Sortsmith::Sorter.new(users)
  .by_key(:name)
  .sort

# Result: [{ name: "Alice" }, { name: "Bob" }, { name: "Carol" }]

Object Sorting

# Sort objects by method/attribute
class User < Data.define(:name)
end

users = [User.new(name: "Bob"), User.new(name: "Carol"), User.new(name: "Alice")]

sorted_users = Sortsmith::Sorter.new(users)
  .by_method(:name)
  .sort

# Result: [#<data User name="Alice">, #<data User name="Bob">, #<data User name="Carol">]

Case Insensitive Sorting

users = [
  {"name" => "bob"},
  {"name" => "Billy"},
  {"name" => "Alice"},
  {"name" => "carol"},
  {"name" => "Cassidy"},
  {"name" => "alex"}
]

# Order of methods does not matter
# However, the hash's key type does
sorted_users = Sortsmith::Sorter.new(users)
    .case_insensitive
    .by_key("name")
    .sort

# Result: [{"name"=>"Alice"}, {"name"=>"alex"}, {"name"=>"Billy"}, {"name"=>"bob"}, {"name"=>"Cassidy"}, {"name"=>"carol"}]

Reverse Sorting

# Sort in descending order
sorted_desc = Sortsmith::Sorter.new(array)
  .by_attribute(:name)
  .desc
  .sort

Development

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.3.6
• Nix with Direnv (optional, but recommended)

Setting Up the Development Environment

With Nix:

direnv allow

Without Nix:

bundle install

Running Tests

bundle exec rake test

Type Checking

bundle exec steep check

Code Style

This project uses StandardRB. To check your code:

bundle exec standardrb

To automatically fix issues:

bundle exec standardrb --fix

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of changes.

Credits

• Author: Bryan "itsthedevman"