Sorting ascending and descending in Dart?

For ascending

var nlist = [1, 6, 8, 2, 16, 0]
nlist.sort((a, b) => a.compareTo(b));

For descending

var nlist = [1, 6, 8, 2, 16, 0]
nlist.sort((b, a) => a.compareTo(b));

Another way to sort

  var nlist = [4,2,1,5];
  var ascending = nlist..sort();
  var descending = ascending.reversed;
  print(ascending);  // [1, 2, 4, 5]
  print(descending);  // [5, 4, 2, 1]

For Ascending:

var nlist = [4,2,1,5]
var compare = (b, a) => a.compareTo(b);

For Descending:

var compare = (b, a) => -a.compareTo(b);

Would be interesting what you actually expected from happening after the change.

Compare returns +1, 0, -1 depending on whether the 2nd argument is greater than the 1st or 0 if they are equal. When you swap the two arguments +1 becomes -1 and vice versa this leads to a descending order instead of an ascending one.

1.compareTo(2)

returns -1 and

print(nlist.sort((a, b) => a.compareTo(b)));

prints the list elements in ascending order, so yes, ascending is default.