Javascript: Sort li items alphabetically by data attribute without jquery

Question

I'm trying to sort a list alphabetically only using javascript.

I've already none a similar function using jquery like this:

$('.articles').append($('#articles-non-attached li'));
        var alphabeticallyOrderedDivs = $('.articles li').sort(function(a, b) {
            return String.prototype.localeCompare.call($(a).data('title').toLowerCase(), $(b).data('title').toLowerCase());
        });

But now I need to use just Javascript.

So far I've got:

var stores_li = document.querySelectorAll('.store-list-item');

//stores_li.sort();

[].slice.call(stores_li).sort(function(a, b) {
    var textA = a.getAttribute('data-title').toLowerCase()
    var textB = b.getAttribute('data-title').toLowerCase()
    return (textA < textB) ? -1 : (textA > textB) ? 1 : 0;
    //return String.prototype.localeCompare.call(textA,textB);

});

<ul>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="a">Test 1</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="c">Test 3</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="b">Test 2</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="d">Test 4</li>
</ul>

Answer 1

You need to append the newly sorted items.

var stores_li = document.querySelectorAll('.store-list-item');

[].slice.call(stores_li).sort(function(a, b) {
    var textA = a.getAttribute('data-title').toLowerCase()
    var textB = b.getAttribute('data-title').toLowerCase()
    return (textA < textB) ? -1 : (textA > textB) ? 1 : 0;
})
  .forEach(function(el) {el.parentNode.appendChild(el)});

<ul>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="a">Test 1</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="c">Test 3</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="b">Test 2</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="d">Test 4</li>
</ul>

This is because the native .sort() method isn't a DOM method; it just sorts any arbitrary list of Array items. So by appending the newly sorted item, it commits the new element order to the DOM.

Note that the simple solution above assumes they all share the same parent.

---

Here's a version with modern syntax and methods:

var stores_li = document.querySelectorAll('.store-list-item');

Array.from(stores_li).sort((a, b) =>   
  a.dataset.title.toLowerCase().localeCompare(b.dataset.title.toLowerCase())
)
  .forEach(el => el.parentNode.appendChild(el));

<ul>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="a">Test 1</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="c">Test 3</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="b">Test 2</li>
  <li class="store-list-item" data-title="d">Test 4</li>
</ul>