MaxCompute:SORT_ARRAY

Syntax

array<T> sort_array(array<T> <a>[, <isasc>])

Parameters

Required

• a: The array to sort. T is the element data type, which can be any supported data type.

Optional

• isasc: The sort order. true sorts in ascending order; false sorts in descending order. Default: true.

Return value

Returns a value of the ARRAY type.

Examples

Example 1: Sort multiple array columns in ascending order

The t_array table has the following columns and data:

+------------+---------+--------------+
| c1         | c2      | c3           |
+------------+---------+--------------+
| [a, c, f, b]  | [4, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8]  |  [You, Me, Him] |
+------------+---------+--------------+

Sort each array column in ascending order (the default):

-- Returns [a, b, c, f] [2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8] [Him, Me, You].
select sort_array(c1), sort_array(c2), sort_array(c3) from t_array;

Example 2: Sort with NULL elements in ascending order

NULL is treated as the minimum value and placed at the beginning of the result:

-- Returns [null, 10, 20, 30, 30, 40, 50].
select sort_array(array(10, 20, 40, 30, 30, null, 50));

Example 3: Sort in descending order with NULL elements

NULL is placed at the end of the result when sorting in descending order:

-- Returns [50, 40, 30, 30, 20, 10, null].
select sort_array(array(10, 20, 40, 30, 30, null, 50), false);

Related functions

SORT_ARRAY is a complex type function. For more information about functions that process ARRAY, MAP, STRUCT, and JSON data, see Complex type functions.