Question

Javascript Sort method

Posted on October 22, 2020
JavaScript
Asked by elemkey

I found this very informative post on the subject of the Javascript SORT method. I found, however, that VS Code does not recognize the method.

This is the error message I got:

numbers.sort((a,b) => a - b); ^

TypeError: numbers.sort is not a function

Has anyone else run into this?

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Andy Hattemer

DigitalOcean Employee

• October 23, 2020

Accepted Answer

That error looks like the type that you get when your numbers variable is not actually typed as an Array.

For example, if you have some code where the numbers variable was an object or an integer or a string:

var numbers ="1,6,3";
numbers.sort((a,b) => a - b);

You will get Uncaught TypeError: numbers.sort is not a function because there is no sort function for strings.

But if you check this exact snippet of code:

var numbers = [3,6,1];
numbers.sort((a,b) => a - b);

You should definitely not see any errors.

When you say:

VS Code does not recognize the method

This makes me think you are seeing IDE debugging warnings which could also be due to other problems with the your VS Code and extensions config.

But my first recommendation on debugging would be to check the TYPE of the numbers variable just before you call numbers.sort() and confirm that it is an Array