👀 Views: 16 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-08-21

javascript sorting performance JavaScript

I'm experimenting with I'm trying to configure I've been struggling with this for a few days now and could really use some help. I'm working on a JavaScript application that needs to sort a large array of user scores, each represented as objects. My goal is to sort these users by their scores in descending order while maintaining the stability of the sort (i.e., keeping users with the same score in their original order). However, I'm encountering significant performance issues when the array size increases, and I suspect it might be related to the sorting algorithm I'm using. Here’s the code that I implemented: ```javascript const users = [ { name: 'Alice', score: 85 }, { name: 'Bob', score: 95 }, { name: 'Charlie', score: 85 }, { name: 'David', score: 90 } ]; const sortedUsers = users.sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score); ``` While this works fine for smaller arrays, I noticed that when the array exceeds 10,000 entries, the performance degrades significantly. The sort function takes noticeably longer, and in some cases, it even freezes the UI. I tried using the `Array.prototype.sort()` method which, per the documentation, is supposed to be a stable sort in most modern browsers. However, I’m not sure if this holds true when handling large datasets. I also experimented with different sorting algorithms, like implementing a merge sort, but it seems overly complex for this task. Additionally, I get some inconsistent behavior when users have the same scores. For instance, if I add another user with a score of 85: ```javascript users.push({ name: 'Eve', score: 85 }); ``` The order sometimes changes when I re-sort the array, leading to unexpected results in my UI that relies on the order of users. Could this be related to the way sorting is handled internally in JavaScript? What strategies can I adopt to ensure both stable sorting and improved performance for large arrays? Any suggestions or best practices would be greatly appreciated! This is part of a larger service I'm building. Has anyone else encountered this? I'm developing on Ubuntu 20.04 with Javascript. Could someone point me to the right documentation? I'm developing on macOS with Javascript. Is there a simpler solution I'm overlooking?