How do I sort this? - sorting

Question

Here is a data dump of what I am trying to sort
array
1
struct
col 1
dataid 48
identifier 1
row 1
size_x 4
size_y 1
2
struct
col 1
dataid 42
identifier 2
row 2
size_x 2
size_y 1
3
struct
col 3
dataid 45
identifier 3
row 2
size_x 2
size_y 1
I want to sort by row first, then col. Lots of examples how to sort by one data element, but none that talk about secondary elements.

Answer 1

ColdFusion 10 has built-in customised array sorting using a callback. The docs for arraySort() didn't mention this, but I've just updated them with an example. My example there doesn't show a compound sort like you require, but it's easy enough:
<cfscript>
comparator = function(e1, e2){
e1.row += 0; // need to make sure it's not a string for the Java method call below
var rowCompare = e1.row.compareTo(e2.row + 0);
if (rowCompare !=0){
return rowCompare;
}
e1.col += 0;
return e1.col.compareTo(e2.col + 0);
};
data = [
{row=3, col=3}, {row=3,col=2}, {row=3, col=1},
{row=2, col=3}, {row=2,col=2}, {row=2, col=1},
{row=1, col=3}, {row=1,col=2}, {row=1, col=1}
];
writeDump(var=data);
arraySort(data, comparator);
writeDump(var=data);
</cfscript>
This leverages that CF numerics are java.lang.Double objects.

Answer 2

<cfscript>
//ColdFusion 10 only supports this new types of struct declaration
recordArr = [
{col: 1,dataid:48,identifier:1,row:1,size_x:4,size_y:1},
{col: 1,dataid:42,identifier:2,row:2,size_x:2,size_y:1},
{col: 3,dataid:45,identifier:3,row:2,size_x:2,size_y:1}
];
//ColdFusion 10 only supports this new queryNew() functionality
queryObj = queryNew("col,dataid,identifier,row,size_x,size_y",
"Integer,Integer,Integer,Integer,Integer,Integer",
recordArr);
</cfscript>
<!--- Here it comes our favourite cfquery tag. We can apply order by clause
as per our wish --->
<cfquery name="ordredResult" dbtype="query">
SELECT * FROM queryObj ORDER BY row ASC, col ASC
</cfquery>
<!--- Here is the expected result --->
<cfdump var="#ordredResult#">