$sort — Sort Elements

$sort takes a delimited list of values, sorts them, and returns them as a string using the same delimiter. It is primarily designed for numeric sorting but can be used with any comparable values.

Syntax

$sort[separator;(direction)]

Wait — note the unusual syntax: $sort takes the separator as its first argument, not the data! The data is the current spreads text or must be set up beforehand.

Common usage pattern: Use $textSplit first to load the data, then $sort to sort it.

$textSplit[5;2;8;1;3;]
$sort[;;(direction)]

Alternatively, $sort can operate on a delimited string directly:

$sort[5,2,8,1,3;,;(asc)]

Parameters

• separator (string, required) — The delimiter separating the values.
• direction (string, optional) — "asc" or "ascending" for ascending; "desc" or "descending" for descending. Default: descending (numerical).

Return Value

• Type: string
• Returns the sorted elements joined by the same separator.

Usage

$sort[3,1,4,1,5;,;asc]   → "1,1,3,4,5"
$sort[z,y,x;,]            → depends on implementation (default descending)
$sort[100 10 1000; ;asc]  → "10 100 1000" (numerical sort)

Common Patterns

Sorting User-Provided Numbers

$textSplit[$message; ]
$sendMessage[Sorted: $sort[ ;asc]]

Ranking Scores

$textSplit[$getUserVar[scores];,]
$var[topScores;$sort[,;desc]]

Organizing Data for Display

$textSplit[$getUserVar[items];,]
$sendMessage[Items (A-Z): $sort[,;asc]]

Important Notes

• Default is descending: Unlike many sorting functions, BDFD’s $sort defaults to descending order.
• Numerical sort: Numbers are sorted numerically (2 before 10), which is the expected behavior. For alphabetical sorting, behavior may differ.
• Separator consistency: The same separator is used for both input parsing and output joining.
• Works with spreads context: Can operate on the current $textSplit result, using the separator to join the output.