locale based sorting function in ruby

Question

For my application(Ruby on Rails) i have country select box for the signup page. These countries are localized into different language. But i couldnt find a way to sort them, based on the language in which its localized. At present i have sorted it out based on english only. Is there a way to sort the country names based on the locale? i.e the order of the countries should change(ascending order) according to the language its localised. Thanks..

Answer 1

Maybe you can translate all and sort it after this translation.

Answer 2

You can make a custom String comparison method, based on a given alphabet, something like this (works in Ruby 1.9):

class String
  # compares two strings based on a given alphabet
  def cmp_loc(other, alphabet)
    order = Hash[alphabet.each_char.with_index.to_a]

    self.chars.zip(other.chars) do |c1, c2|
      cc = (order[c1] || -1) <=> (order[c2] || -1)
      return cc unless cc == 0
    end
    return self.size <=> other.size
  end
end

class Array
  # sorts an array of strings based on a given alphabet
  def sort_loc(alphabet)
    self.sort{|s1, s2| s1.cmp_loc(s2, alphabet)}
  end
end

array_to_sort = ['abc', 'abd', 'bcd', 'bcde', 'bde']

ALPHABETS = {
  :language_foo => 'abcdef',
  :language_bar => 'fedcba'
}

p array_to_sort.sort_loc(ALPHABETS[:language_foo])
#=>["abc", "abd", "bcd", "bcde", "bde"]

p array_to_sort.sort_loc(ALPHABETS[:language_bar])
#=>["bde", "bcd", "bcde", "abd", "abc"]

And then provide alphabetical orders for every language you want to support.