Sorting JSON data by date in HUGO - hugo

Question

I have the following data structure working in a HUGO site
Data in local appearances.json file:
{
"events":[ {
"name": "title three",
"date": "7/02/2022",
"url": "http://some.com"
},
{
"name": "title one",
"date": "5/01/2022",
"url": "http://some.com"
},
{
"name": "title two",
"date": "7/01/2022",
"url": "http://some.com"
}]
}
Partial page:
<div class="row listrecent">
{{ range .Site.Data.appearances.events }}
{{- partial "list-partials/appearancebox.html" . -}}
{{end}}
</div>
output:
However, I would like to sort the contents of the array by "date", preferably with the newest event at the top - i.e the first block visible should be "title three"
I have tried various sort methods with some success but I cannot seem to combine sorting by date and converting the stringified date.
I could ensure the JSON is in the correct order but that seems fragile to me.

Answer 1

The solution in the end was this:
{{ $events := slice }}
{{ range .Site.Data.appearances.events }}
{{ $event := . }}
{{ $parsedEvent := dict }}
{{ range $k, $v := $event }}
{{ if eq $k "date" }}
{{ $parsedEvent = merge $parsedEvent (dict $k (time $v)) }}
{{ else }}
{{ $parsedEvent = merge $parsedEvent (dict $k $v) }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}
{{ $events = $events | append $parsedEvent }}
{{ end }}
<div class="row listrecent">
{{ range sort $events "date" "desc" }}
{{ if (.date.After now) }}
{{- partial "list-partials/appearancebox.html" . -}}
{{ end }}
{{end}}
</div>
If anyone has a cleaner way then I am all ears!

Answer 2

Presuming that your json is "events.json", then go for the code below:
<ul>
{{ range sort $json.events "date" "desc" }}
<li>
<b>
{{ .name }}
</b>
<br>
{{ .date }}
</li>
{{ end }}
</ul>
The above solution is working check my branch repo

Answer 3

I'm not near my dev set-up, so this will be psuedo code and concepts, but:
https://gohugo.io/functions/range/#readout <- not very detailed.
https://gohugo.io/functions/sort/#readout <- Much more data.
So, something like:
Authors: {{ range sort .Site.Params.authors }}{{ .firstName }} {{ end }}
(example given in link 2 above).
So concept/psuedo, I believe:
{{ range sort .Site.Data.etc.etc. "date" }}
This would sort by ascending (again, not sure the final output for a date field, also due to the fact I believe you have date as a string, which I understand, it's json, but meaning, it's not going to give you expected output. so you might have to convert that field to a date object or data sortable concept as opposed to a string.
https://gohugo.io/functions/format/#use-local-and-utc
Might be of assistance for that.
Again, not near my compu/dev setup, but the above should work. The key being the sort command.