Mastering Go: A Custom Sort Challenge for LinkedIn Stories

Creating a custom sorting algorithm in Go presents a unique challenge in software development, especially when tailored for specific use cases like organizing LinkedIn stories. This task involves crafting a specialized sorting solution that goes beyond the standard library functions to meet the distinct requirements of presenting LinkedIn stories in an effective and user-friendly manner. The goal is to develop a sorter in Go that efficiently orders stories based on specific criteria and enhances the overall user experience by displaying stories in a more meaningful and organized way.

1. Define the Data Structure: The first step involved defining the data structure. A struct named LinkedInStory will represent each story, containing fields such as title, posted date, views, and likes.

type LinkedInStory struct {
	Title      string
	PostedDate time.Time
	Views      int
	Likes      int
}        

2. Implement the Sort Interface: Go's sort package requires the implementation of the Len, Less, and Swap methods to sort a slice. We need to define these methods based on the criteria you want to sort by.

type ByViews []model.LinkedInStory

func (stories ByViews) Len() int {
	return len(stories)
}

func (stories ByViews) Swap(i, j int) {
	stories[i], stories[j] = stories[j], stories[i]
}

func (stories ByViews) Less(i, j int) bool {
	return stories[i].Views > stories[j].Views
}        

3. Perform the Sort: Once you have your slice of LinkedInStory and the custom sort interface implemented, you can use the sort.Sort function to sort your slice.

stories := []model.LinkedInStory{
    // Populate your slice
}

sort.Sort(ByViews(stories))        

Challenge: Handling edge cases in custom sort implementation

Ties in Primary Sorting Criteria: What should happen if two stories have the same number of views? Should they be considered equal, or should there be a secondary sorting criterion?

Share your solution and discuss the choices you made. How did you handle the ties? What secondary criteria did you choose, and why? How did you ensure the efficiency of your sort?

Check out my custom Go sorter for LinkedIn stories on GitHub