Search for data and order by priority efficiently

Question

I have a search-function, that searches for specific data within a huge Object.

Depending on how good a found entry matches, the finding gets "matchPoints" (or "Priority")

var findings = {};
for(var element in hugeObject){
    var points = getMatchPoints( inputToSearchFor, hugeObject[element] );
    if( points !== 0 ){    //It matched. At least a bit.
        findings[ points ] = element;
    }
}

Now I have all Elements, that somehow matched, within findings.

The function which implements this has to return an Array of all these elements. The most relevant result on the first place.

I currently use this for sorting:

var priorities = Object.keys(findings);    //Get the matchpoints of all findings
priorities.reverse(); //Sort with reverse order (highest priority / most matchpoints first)

var result = [];
for(var i=0; i<priorities.length; i++){
    result.push( findings[i] );
}
return result;

I have several issues with this code:

• It is inefficient and probably very slow
• The .reverse() function sorts the priorities alphabetically, not numerically
• If 2 findings have the same amount of matchpoints, the findings-entry gets overwritten. So the result isn't even valid.

How can I solve this problem in an efficient and elegant way?

Edit: I should mention, that although the object where I search is very big, I only get few valid results which matchPoints > 0. In fact, most of the time I'll get only 2-3 matches at all.

Answer 1

The .reverse() function sorts the priorities alphabetically, not numerically

This is because Object.keys returns an array of strings.

If 2 findings have the same amount of matchpoints, the findings-entry gets overwritten. So the result isn't even valid.

Right, you want to push matches onto the array and sort it afterwards.

var findings = [];
for (var element in hugeObject) {
    var points = getMatchPoints(inputToSearchFor, hugeObject[element]);
    if (points) {
        // It matched. At least a bit.
        findings.push({ points: points, element: element });
    }
}
findings.sort(function(a, b) { return b.points - a.points; });

Here I'm creating a new object with the number of match points stored in points and the found object stored in element, but you could store the point count directly in the found object if it makes more sense.