JSON Array Sorter

What this tool does

JSON Array Sorter reorders the elements of a JSON array of objects by the value of one or more fields — the classic ORDER BY operation, but for a raw JSON array you can paste straight from an API response, a log export, or a database dump. Give it one field or a whole list, and it returns the same objects in a new order, ready to copy back out.

Each sort key can dig into nested paths with dot-notation (address.city, or the array index tags.0), carry its own direction with a +/- prefix, and fall back to a global ascending/descending default. You control where rows with a missing or null field land, whether strings compare case-insensitively, and how the result is indented — or minified onto a single line. It sorts array elements by a field; it never touches the keys inside each object, so the shape of every record is preserved exactly.

Worked example

Input

[
  { "dept": "Eng", "salary": 120 },
  { "dept": "Ops", "salary": 90 },
  { "dept": "Eng", "salary": 150 }
]

With keys = dept,-salary (department ascending, then salary descending within each department) and indent = 2, the output is:

[
  {
    "dept": "Eng",
    "salary": 150
  },
  {
    "dept": "Eng",
    "salary": 120
  },
  {
    "dept": "Ops",
    "salary": 90
  }
]

The two Eng rows group together and sort highest-paid first; Ops follows. Set indent to 0 to get the same order minified onto one line: [{"dept":"Eng","salary":150},{"dept":"Eng","salary":120},{"dept":"Ops","salary":90}].

How to use it

1. Paste a JSON array of objects into the input.
2. Enter one or more sort keys, comma-separated — e.g. age, or dept,-salary,name. Use dots for nested fields and -/+ to flip a single key's direction.
3. Pick the default direction, where missing/null values go, whether strings are case-insensitive, and the indent (0 to minify).
4. Read the sorted array. Everything runs locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

FAQ

Limits & edge cases

• The input must be a top-level JSON array; a bare object or scalar is rejected with a clear error. Each element is expected to be an object you can sort by field.
• Indent is clamped to 0–8 spaces; 0 minifies to a single line, and any larger value is capped at 8.
• Comparison is type-aware but not locale-aware: strings sort by Unicode codepoint (with optional case-folding), and there is no numeric tolerance — 10 and 10.0 are equal as numbers but "10" (a string) is not.
• At least one sort key is required; an empty or all-blank keys value is an error.
• Everything runs in-browser via WebAssembly — the JSON you paste is never uploaded.