SassySort

Here are a couple of ways to sort values (including strings) in Sass (~> 3.3).

Disclaimer! While it can be useful to sort numbers in Sass in case of the making of a modular scale or something, it is rarely the case for strings. The main idea behind this repository is to push Sass' syntax to its limit. Long story short: because we can.

Available algorithms

Benchmark

50 items long list

quick -> 0.238s / 0.226s / 0.202s / 0.206s / 0.226s => 0.2195s
comb -> 0.350s / 0.323s / 0.330s / 0.324s / 0.328s => 0.3310s
shell -> 0.412s / 0.355s / 0.359s / 0.372s / 0.437s => 0.3869s
insertion -> 0.400s / 0.42s / 0.406s / 0.399s / 0.468s => 0.4185s
selection -> 0.635s / 0.579s / 0.580s / 0.601s / 0.611s => 0.6012s
bubble -> 0.976s / 0.830s / 0.802s / 0.824s / 0.936s => 0.8736s

100 items long list

quick -> 0.592s / 0.547s / 0.569s / 0.541s / 0.548s => 0.5594s
comb -> 0.946s / 0.903s / 0.897s / 0.902s / 0.905s => 0.9106s
shell -> 1.413s / 1.435s / 1.425s / 1.489s / 1.408s => 1.4340s
insertion -> 1.744s / 1.625s / 1.583s / 1.572s / 1.608s => 1.6263s
selection -> 2.605s / 2.462s / 2.502s / 2.490s / 2.477s => 2.5072s
bubble -> 3.828s / 3.699s / 3.704s / 3.672s / 3.743s => 3.7292s

quicksort is well named since it is by far the fastest algorithm: about 3 times faster than shellsort and insertionsort implementations, 4 times faster than selectionsort and 7 times faster than bubblesort.

Install as a Compass extension

gem install SassySort
Add require 'SassySort' to your config.rb
Import it in your stylesheets with @import 'SassySort'

Credits

Thanks to mgechev for his work on sorting algorithms in JavaScript which has been a great help for implementing sorting algorithms in Sass.

More informations about sorting algorithms at http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/.