Sort sublayers numerically in ai

[sams96826490]

Good Morning Vietnam (and to everyone else)

Is there a way to sort sublayers ? If its a script i need , anyone know if there is one online available? Many thanks for any help.

[Charu Rajput]

Hi,

By looking at your image, it does not seems like these are sublayers. I am not sure on what conditions do you want to sort. A question for you :  Do items inside the Layer 1 has name with numbers?

If you are looking to sort layers, may be following link will be helpful. Following is using alphabets to sort.

https://gist.github.com/KennyRedman/b8582079dabc1be17b05

[sams96826490]

oh yes, i guess sublayers are different. these are numbers / fonts i have on my designs. i guess i can put them into differnt layers and sort the layers . Thanks a lot for your time and have a good day ahead

[Charu Rajput]

More link that could be helpful

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/sort-layers-alphabetically/td-p/12350421

[sams96826490]

Many thanks

[Sergey Osokin]

I wanted to clarify. "Sublayers" - do you mean objects inside layer? Because objects and sublayers are different terms. Do you want to sort objects by name inside active layer?

[sams96826490]

yes , sorry my wrong lingo - items inside a layer

[Sergey Osokin]

I used Tom Scharstein's (@Inventsable) layer sorting code and made objects in the active layer sort with textFrame content and custom names. The default names (not really real names) <rectangle>, <group> are not sorted

var isLowerFirst = false; // Set it to false if you want to place the layers with the first uppercase letter above
var isReverse = false;  // Set it to false if you want to sort names in reverse order

// Convert ILST collection into standard Array so we can use Array methods
function get(type, parent) {
  if (arguments.length == 1 || !parent) parent = app.activeDocument;
  var result = [];
  if (!parent[type]) return result;
  for (var i = 0; i < parent[type].length; i++) result.push(parent[type][i]);
  return result;
}

// Polyfill for Array.forEach
Array.prototype.forEach = function (callback) {
  for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) callback(this[i], i, this);
};

// Check string
function isEmpty(s) {
  return s.replace(/\s/g, '').length == 0;
}

// Get pageItem name
function getName(e) {
  if (e.typename === "TextFrame" && isEmpty(e.name) && !isEmpty(e.contents)) {
    return e.contents;
  } else if (e.typename === "SymbolItem" && isEmpty(e.name)) {
    return e.symbol.name;
  } else {
    return e.name;
  }
}

function sortLayerItems(parent, isReverse) {
  if (arguments.length == 1 || !isReverse) isReverse = false;

  function isUpperCase(text) {
    return /[A-Z]/.test(text.charAt(0))
  }

  function isLowerCase(text) {
    return /[a-z]/.test(text.charAt(0))
  }

  function hasMixedCase(a, b) {
    if (a.charAt(0).toLowerCase() !== b.charAt(0).toLowerCase()) return false;
    return isUpperCase(a) && isLowerCase(b) ? true : isLowerCase(a) && isUpperCase(b);
  }

  function handleMixedCase(a, b) {
    var result = a === b ? 0 : isUpperCase(a) ? 1 : -1;
    return isLowerFirst ? result : result * -1;
  }

  get("pageItems", parent)
    .sort(function (a, b) {
      var aName = getName(a);
      var bName = getName(b);
      return hasMixedCase(aName, bName) ?
        handleMixedCase(aName, bName) :
        aName.toLowerCase().localeCompare(bName.toLowerCase())
    })
    .forEach(function (e) {
      e.zOrder(isReverse ? ZOrderMethod.BRINGTOFRONT : ZOrderMethod.SENDTOBACK);
    });
}

sortLayerItems(activeDocument.activeLayer, isReverse);

[sams96826490]

This is amazing Sergey - works perfectly. A huge thank you !!!! HAve a great day ahead. You are my hero today. 

[sams96826490]

Seems to make many in numerical order then start more batches in numerical order . it still helps me in some ways as all the numbers arent so jumbled but for some reason doesnt put them all in order. After 22 it starts again 

  

[Sergey Osokin · Accepted solution]

Fixed

var isLowerFirst = false; // Set it to false if you want to place the layers with the first uppercase letter above
var isReverse = false;  // Set it to false if you want to sort names in reverse order

// Convert ILST collection into standard Array so we can use Array methods
function get(type, parent) {
  if (arguments.length == 1 || !parent) parent = app.activeDocument;
  var result = [];
  if (!parent[type]) return result;
  for (var i = 0; i < parent[type].length; i++) result.push(parent[type][i]);
  return result;
}

// Polyfill for Array.forEach
Array.prototype.forEach = function (callback) {
  for (var i = 0; i < this.length; i++) callback(this[i], i, this);
};

// Check string
function isEmpty(s) {
  return s.replace(/\s/g, '').length == 0;
}

// Get pageItem name
function getName(e) {
  if (e.typename === "TextFrame" && isEmpty(e.name) && !isEmpty(e.contents)) {
    return e.contents;
  } else if (e.typename === "SymbolItem" && isEmpty(e.name)) {
    return e.symbol.name;
  } else {
    return e.name;
  }
}

function sortLayerItems(parent, isReverse) {
  if (arguments.length == 1 || !isReverse) isReverse = false;

  function isUpperCase(text) {
    return /[A-Z]/.test(text.charAt(0))
  }

  function isLowerCase(text) {
    return /[a-z]/.test(text.charAt(0))
  }

  function hasMixedCase(a, b) {
    if (a.charAt(0).toLowerCase() !== b.charAt(0).toLowerCase()) return false;
    return isUpperCase(a) && isLowerCase(b) ? true : isLowerCase(a) && isUpperCase(b);
  }

  function handleMixedCase(a, b) {
    var result = a === b ? 0 : isUpperCase(a) ? 1 : -1;
    return isLowerFirst ? result : result * -1;
  }

  get("pageItems", parent)
    .sort(function (a, b) {
      var aName = getName(a);
      var bName = getName(b);
      if (!isNaN(aName) && !isNaN(bName)) {
        return 1 * aName - 1 * bName;
      } else {
        return hasMixedCase(aName, bName) ?
          handleMixedCase(aName, bName) :
          aName.toLowerCase().localeCompare(bName.toLowerCase())
      }
    })
    .forEach(function (e) {
      e.zOrder(isReverse ? ZOrderMethod.BRINGTOFRONT : ZOrderMethod.SENDTOBACK);
    });
}

sortLayerItems(activeDocument.activeLayer, isReverse);

[sams96826490]

Perfectomondo Thank you very very much for taking time out to do this. It encourages me to help others when i can. Have a lovely night . 

[Sergey Osokin]

New version with UI available here https://github.com/creold/illustrator-scripts/blob/master/jsx/SortLayerItems.jsx