If you do a lot of work for Flash Player 6 (AS1), this may interest you. If you don't, this won't interest you at all.

NOTE: AS2 sorting is faster than these prototypes. If you are using Player 7 or later - use Flash's built in sort methods.

Below are three numeric sorting prototypes for Flash. These are also posted at http://proto.layer51.com/

I haven't found any faster sorts. If you have any, please post to layer51.

All three of the sorts convert numbers into sortable string values, then sort, then convert back to numbers. So if you're sorting 8 and 750, 8 gets converted to 008.

The variable names are short (making the code really hard to understand) because shorter variable names actually do run faster in Flash. These were written back when every little bit really mattered. (Thankfully, those days are past.)

doug

// Description :: Positive Integer Sort
// Returns :: Sorted Array
// Restriction :: only works for positive integers
// The idea for this came from David Yang's (I think) post on chatty fig. His was a sortOn method.
// Author :: Doug Marttila - David Yang(?) unbeknownst to him
Array.prototype.sortPInt = function() {
var m = 0
var L = this.length;
var i = L;
while (i--) {
var s = String(this[i]);
if (s.length>m){
m = s.length;
}
}
var z = "";
var i = m;
while (--i) {
z += "0";
}
var i = L;
while (i--) {
this[i] = (z+this[i]).slice(-m);
}
this.sort();
var i = L;
while (i--) {
this[i] = parseInt(this[i], 10);
}
};
ASSetPropFlags(Array.prototype, "sortPInt", 1);

// Description :: Numeric (float) Sorts
// Return :: Sorted Array
// Restriction :: sortPNum is faster than sortNum, but, sortPNum only works for positive numbers.
// for fastest positive integer sort, use sortPInt
// sortNum requires sortPNum. If you're only using sortPNum, you can remove the sortNum method from the include.
// Author :: Doug Marttila
Number.prototype.findDigits = function() {
var t = 10;
var d = 1;
var n = Math.floor(this);
while (t-1<n) {
t *= 10;
d++;
}
return d;
};
//returns the largest number in an array
Array.prototype.findLargest = function() {
var L =this[0];
var p
for (p in this) {
if (this[p]>L) {
L = this[p];
}
}
return L;
};
ASSetPropFlags(Array.prototype, "findLargest", 1);
Array.prototype.sortPNum = function() {
//get the number of non-decimal digits in the largest number in the array
var digits = this.findLargest().findDigits();
//turn the array into an array of strings that sorts like numbers
//if largest num is 9873 - turns 8 into '0008'
//zeroes:string, digits to add, prop
var z, d, p;
for (p in this) {
d = digits-this[p].findDigits();
z = "";
while (d--) {
z += '0';
}
this[p] = String(z+this[p]);
}
//sort as strings - fast
this.sort();
//turn the strings back into numbers
for (p in this) {
this[p] = parseFloat(this[p]);
}
};
ASSetPropFlags(Array.prototype, "sortPNum", 1);
Array.prototype.sortNum = function() {
//split array into 3 arrays - positive, negative, zeroes
var pos = new Array();
var neg = new Array();
var zer = new Array();
var p, n
for (p in this) {
n = this[p];
if (n>0) {
pos.push(n);
} else if (n==0) {
zer.push(0);
} else {
neg.push(n*-1);
}
}
pos.sortPNum();
neg.sortPNum();
for (p in neg) {
neg[p] *= -1;
}
neg.reverse();
var s = neg.concat(zer, pos);
for (p in this) {
this[p] = s[p];
}
};
ASSetPropFlags(Array.prototype, "sortNum", 1);

Usage

Above contains the code for 3 numeric sorts - positive integer, positive number, and number.
I use the integer sort the most - and it's the fastest. But, they are all faster than
using the built in sort with a numeric compare function (sometimes only slightly faster).
The speed difference is greatest when the array is already sorted (or nearly sorted or reversed).

I've only tested these in MX on the PC.

The sortPNum and sortNum sorts require the number.findDigits prototype and the
array.findLargest prototype. (both included above)

sortNum requires sortPNum

arr=[2,3,1,5,6];
arr.sortPInt();
trace(arr)//1,2,3,5,6

arr=[2.1,2.4,1.2,3];
arr.sortPNum();
trace(arr)//1.2,2.1,2.4,3

arr=[2.1,-4,3.2,-5.4];
arr.sortNum();
trace(arr)//-5.4,-4,2.1,3.2

One sample benchmark:
arr = [];
for (i=0; i<1000; i++) {
arr[i] = 1000-i;
}
start = getTimer();
arr.sortPInt();
function numSort(a, b) {
return (a-b);
}
//arr.sort(numSort);
trace(getTimer()-start);
//time sort(numSort) : 14584
//time sortPInt : 3736

Obviously, the reverse() method would be best choice for the above benchmark. But, you get the
idea.