Sort array on key value

function keysrt(key) {
  return function(a,b){
   if (a[key] > b[key]) return 1;
   if (a[key] < b[key]) return -1;
   return 0;
  }
}

someArrayOfObjects.sort(keysrt('text'));

[edit 2020/08/14] This was rather an old answer and not very good as well, so simplified and revised.

Create a function that returns the sorting lambda (the Array.prototype.sort callback that does the actual sorting). That function can receive the key name, the kind of sorting (string (case sensitive or not) or numeric) and the sorting order (ascending/descending). The lambda uses the parameter values (closure) to determine how to sort.

const log = (...strs) => 
  document.querySelector("pre").textContent += `\n${strs.join("\n")}`;
const showSortedValues = (arr, key) => 
  ` => ${arr.reduce((acc, val) => ([...acc, val[key]]), [])}`;
  
// the actual sort lamda factory function
const sortOnKey = (key, string, desc) => {
  const caseInsensitive = string && string === "CI";
  return (a, b) => {
    a = caseInsensitive ? a[key].toLowerCase() : a[key];
    b = caseInsensitive ? b[key].toLowerCase() : b[key];
    if (string) {
      return desc ? b.localeCompare(a) : a.localeCompare(b);
    }
    return desc ? b - a : a - b;
  }
};

// a few examples
const onNameStringAscendingCaseSensitive = 
  getTestArray().sort( sortOnKey("name", true) );
const onNameStringAscendingCaseInsensitive = 
  getTestArray().sort( sortOnKey("name", "CI", true) );
const onValueNumericDescending = 
  getTestArray().sort( sortOnKey("value", false, true) );

// examples
log(`*key = name, string ascending case sensitive`,
  showSortedValues(onNameStringAscendingCaseSensitive, "name")
);

log(`\n*key = name, string descending case insensitive`,
  showSortedValues(onNameStringAscendingCaseInsensitive, "name")
);

log(`\n*key = value, numeric desc`, 
  showSortedValues(onValueNumericDescending, "value")
);

function getTestArray() {
  return [{
    name: 'Bob',
    artist: 'Rudy',
    value: 23,
  }, {
    name: 'John',
    artist: 'Drusko',
    value: 123,
  }, {
    name: 'Tiff',
    artist: 'Needell',
    value: 1123,
  }, {
    name: 'Top',
    artist: 'Gear',
    value: 11123,
  }, {
    name: 'john',
    artist: 'Johanson',
    value: 12,
  }, ];
}

<pre></pre>

Make your life easy and use a closure https://stackoverflow.com/a/31846142/1001405

You can see the working example here

var filter = 'name', //sort by name
data = [{name:'bob', artist:'rudy'},{name:'johhny', artist:'drusko'},{name:'tiff', artist:'needell'},{name:'top', artist:'gear'}];; 

var compare = function (filter) {
    return function (a,b) { //closure
        var a = a[filter],
            b = b[filter];

        if (a < b) {
            return -1;
        }else if (a > b) {
            return 1;
        } else {
            return 0;
        }
    };
};

filter = compare(filter); //set filter

console.log(data.sort(filter));

Array.prototype.sortOn = function(key){
    this.sort(function(a, b){
        if(a[key] < b[key]){
            return -1;
        }else if(a[key] > b[key]){
            return 1;
        }
        return 0;
    });
}



var arr = [{name:'bob', artist:'rudy'},{name:'johhny', artist:'drusko'},{name:'tiff', artist:'needell'},{name:'top', artist:'gear'}];

arr.sortOn("name");
arr.sortOn("artist");