Compare method

Either you implement a compare-method for your object:

- (NSComparisonResult)compare:(Person *)otherObject {
    return [self.birthDate compare:otherObject.birthDate];
}

NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];

NSSortDescriptor (better)

or usually even better:

NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor;
sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"birthDate"
                                           ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[sortDescriptor]];

You can easily sort by multiple keys by adding more than one to the array. Using custom comparator-methods is possible as well. Have a look at the documentation.

Blocks (shiny!)

There's also the possibility of sorting with a block since Mac OS X 10.6 and iOS 4:

NSArray *sortedArray;
sortedArray = [drinkDetails sortedArrayUsingComparator:^NSComparisonResult(Person *a, Person *b) {
    return [a.birthDate compare:b.birthDate];
}];

Performance

The -compare: and block-based methods will be quite a bit faster, in general, than using NSSortDescriptor as the latter relies on KVC. The primary advantage of the NSSortDescriptor method is that it provides a way to define your sort order using data, rather than code, which makes it easy to e.g. set things up so users can sort an NSTableView by clicking on the header row.

A quick summary of the concepts:

• Hugging => content does not want to grow
• Compression Resistance => content does not want to shrink

Example:

Say you've got a button like this:

[       Click Me      ]

and you've pinned the edges to a larger superview with priority 500.

Then, if Hugging priority > 500 it'll look like this:

[Click Me]

If Hugging priority < 500 it'll look like this:

[       Click Me      ]

If the superview now shrinks then, if the Compression Resistance priority > 500, it'll look like this

[Click Me]

Else if Compression Resistance priority < 500, it could look like this:

[Cli..]

If it doesn't work like this then you've probably got some other constraints going on that are messing up your good work!

E.g. you could have it pinned to the superview with priority 1000. Or you could have a width priority. If so, this can be helpful:

Editor > Size to Fit Content