How to properly sort list by another list in Dart - flutter

Question

I have two lists, 1 is a list of Map items, and another list which is the order.
I would like to sort the items based on their description attribute and compare them with the order list and have them inserted at the top.
import 'package:collection/collection.dart';
void main() {
List<String> order = [
'top european',
'top usa',
'top rest of the world'
];
List<Map> items = [
{'id': 0, 'id2': 5, 'description': 'Top USA'},
{'id': 2, 'id2': 2, 'description': 'Top A'},
{'id': 3, 'id2': 0, 'description': 'Top Z'},
{'id': 6, 'id2': 6, 'description': 'Top Rest of the world'},
{'id': 4, 'id2': 4, 'description': 'Top C'},
{'id': 5, 'id2': 1, 'description': 'Top D'},
{'id': 1, 'id2': 3, 'description': 'Top European'},
];
//this works but adds the items at the end
items.sort((a,b) {
return order.indexOf(a['description'].toLowerCase()) -
order.indexOf(b['description'].toLowerCase());
});
///Results: print(items);
// List<Map> items = [
// {'id': 2, 'id2': 2, 'description': 'Top A'},
// {'id': 3, 'id2': 0, 'description': 'Top Z'},
// {'id': 4, 'id2': 4, 'description': 'Top C'},
// {'id': 5, 'id2': 1, 'description': 'Top D'},
// {'id': 1, 'id2': 3, 'description': 'Top European'},
// {'id': 0, 'id2': 5, 'description': 'Top USA'},
// {'id': 6, 'id2': 6, 'description': 'Top Rest of the world'},
// ];
}
SOLUTION: I also tried this approach which is not ideal, but it works.
List <Map> itemsOrder = items
.where(
(ele) => order.contains(ele['description'].toString().toLowerCase()))
.toList();
itemsOrder.sort((a, b) {
return order.indexOf(a['description'].toLowerCase()) -
order.indexOf(b['description'].toLowerCase());
});
items.removeWhere(
(ele) => order.contains(ele['description'].toString().toLowerCase()));
itemsOrder = itemsOrder.reversed.toList();
for (int i = 0; i < itemsOrder.length; i++) {
items.insert(0, itemsOrder[i]);
}
///Results: print(items);
// List<Map> items = [
// {'id': 1, 'id2': 3, 'description': 'Top European'},
// {'id': 0, 'id2': 5, 'description': 'Top USA'},
// {'id': 6, 'id2': 6, 'description': 'Top Rest of the world'},
// {'id': 2, 'id2': 2, 'description': 'Top A'},
// {'id': 3, 'id2': 0, 'description': 'Top Z'},
// {'id': 4, 'id2': 4, 'description': 'Top C'},
// {'id': 5, 'id2': 1, 'description': 'Top D'},
// ];
Ideally, I would like to use sortBy or sortByCompare but unfortunately, I cannot find a proper example or get a grasp of how to use it.

Answer 1

The way I would fix this is to find the index of the description in the order list and if it cannot be found, I would use a number that is out of index inside the order list to indicate that this item should be at the bottom of the list.
This would be my solution:
void testIt() {
final outOfBounds = order.length + 1;
const description = 'description';
items.sort(
(lhs, rhs) {
final lhsDesc = (lhs[description] as String).toLowerCase();
final rhsDesc = (rhs[description] as String).toLowerCase();
final lhsIndex =
order.contains(lhsDesc) ? order.indexOf(lhsDesc) : outOfBounds;
final rhsIndex =
order.contains(rhsDesc) ? order.indexOf(rhsDesc) : outOfBounds;
return lhsIndex.compareTo(rhsIndex);
},
);
}
And the result is:
[{id: 1, id2: 3, description: Top European}, {id: 0, id2: 5, description: Top USA}, {id: 6, id2: 6, description: Top Rest of the world}, {id: 2, id2: 2, description: Top A}, {id: 3, id2: 0, description: Top Z}, {id: 4, id2: 4, description: Top C}, {id: 5, id2: 1, description: Top D}]