---
title: sorted()
framework: swift
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Method
path: swift/anybidirectionalcollection/sorted()
---

# sorted()

Returns the elements of the sequence, sorted.

## Declaration

```swift
func sorted() -> [Self.Element]
```

## Return Value

Return Value A sorted array of the sequence’s elements.

## Discussion

Discussion You can sort any sequence of elements that conform to the Comparable protocol by calling this method. Elements are sorted in ascending order. Here’s an example of sorting a list of students’ names. Strings in Swift conform to the Comparable protocol, so the names are sorted in ascending order according to the less-than operator (<). let students: Set = ["Kofi", "Abena", "Peter", "Kweku", "Akosua"] let sortedStudents = students.sorted() print(sortedStudents) // Prints "["Abena", "Akosua", "Kofi", "Kweku", "Peter"]" To sort the elements of your sequence in descending order, pass the greater-than operator (>) to the sorted(by:) method. let descendingStudents = students.sorted(by: >) print(descendingStudents) // Prints "["Peter", "Kweku", "Kofi", "Akosua", "Abena"]" The sorting algorithm is guaranteed to be stable. A stable sort preserves the relative order of elements that compare as equal. note: O(n log n), where n is the length of the sequence.