How can I compare software version number using JavaScript? (only numbers)

Here is the software version number:

"1.0", "1.0.1", "2.0", "2.0.0.1", "2.0.1"

How can I compare this?

Assume the correct order is:

"1.0", "1.0.1", "2.0", "2.0.0.1", "2.0.开发者_Python百科1"

The idea is simple...: Read the first digit, than, the second, after that the third... But I can't convert the version number to float number... You also can see the version number like this:

"1.0.0.0", "1.0.1.0", "2.0.0.0", "2.0.0.1", "2.0.1.0"

And this is clearer to see what is the idea behind... But, how can I convert it into a computer program?

---

semver

The semantic version parser used by npm.

$ npm install semver

var semver = require('semver');

semver.diff('3.4.5', '4.3.7') //'major'
semver.diff('3.4.5', '3.3.7') //'minor'
semver.gte('3.4.8', '3.4.7') //true
semver.ltr('3.4.8', '3.4.7') //false

semver.valid('1.2.3') // '1.2.3'
semver.valid('a.b.c') // null
semver.clean(' =v1.2.3 ') // '1.2.3'
semver.satisfies('1.2.3', '1.x || >=2.5.0 || 5.0.0 - 7.2.3') // true
semver.gt('1.2.3', '9.8.7') // false
semver.lt('1.2.3', '9.8.7') // true

var versions = [ '1.2.3', '3.4.5', '1.0.2' ]
var max = versions.sort(semver.rcompare)[0]
var min = versions.sort(semver.compare)[0]
var max = semver.maxSatisfying(versions, '*')

Semantic Versioning Link :
https://www.npmjs.com/package/semver#prerelease-identifiers

---

The basic idea to make this comparison would be to use Array.split to get arrays of parts from the input strings and then compare pairs of parts from the two arrays; if the parts are not equal we know which version is smaller.

There are a few of important details to keep in mind:

1. How should the parts in each pair be compared? The question wants to compare numerically, but what if we have version strings that are not made up of just digits (e.g. "1.0a")?
2. What should happen if one version string has more parts than the other? Most likely "1.0" should be considered less than "1.0.1", but what about "1.0.0"?

Here's the code for an implementation that you can use directly (gist with documentation):

function versionCompare(v1, v2, options) {
    var lexicographical = options && options.lexicographical,
        zeroExtend = options && options.zeroExtend,
        v1parts = v1.split('.'),
        v2parts = v2.split('.');

    function isValidPart(x) {
        return (lexicographical ? /^\d+[A-Za-z]*$/ : /^\d+$/).test(x);
    }

    if (!v1parts.every(isValidPart) || !v2parts.every(isValidPart)) {
        return NaN;
    }

    if (zeroExtend) {
        while (v1parts.length < v2parts.length) v1parts.push("0");
        while (v2parts.length < v1parts.length) v2parts.push("0");
    }

    if (!lexicographical) {
        v1parts = v1parts.map(Number);
        v2parts = v2parts.map(Number);
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < v1parts.length; ++i) {
        if (v2parts.length == i) {
            return 1;
        }

        if (v1parts[i] == v2parts[i]) {
            continue;
        }
        else if (v1parts[i] > v2parts[i]) {
            return 1;
        }
        else {
            return -1;
        }
    }

    if (v1parts.length != v2parts.length) {
        return -1;
    }

    return 0;
}

This version compares parts naturally, does not accept character suffixes and considers "1.7" to be smaller than "1.7.0". The comparison mode can be changed to lexicographical and shorter version strings can be automatically zero-padded using the optional third argument.

There is a JSFiddle that runs "unit tests" here; it is a slightly expanded version of ripper234's work (thank you).

Important note: This code uses Array.map and Array.every, which means that it will not run in IE versions earlier than 9. If you need to support those you will have to provide polyfills for the missing methods.

---

The simplest is to use localeCompare :

a.localeCompare(b, undefined, { numeric: true, sensitivity: 'base' })

This will return:

• 0: version strings are equal
• 1: version a is greater than b
• -1: version b is greater than a

---

// Return 1 if a > b
// Return -1 if a < b
// Return 0 if a == b
function compare(a, b) {
    if (a === b) {
       return 0;
    }

    var a_components = a.split(".");
    var b_components = b.split(".");

    var len = Math.min(a_components.length, b_components.length);

    // loop while the components are equal
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        // A bigger than B
        if (parseInt(a_components[i]) > parseInt(b_components[i])) {
            return 1;
        }

        // B bigger than A
        if (parseInt(a_components[i]) < parseInt(b_components[i])) {
            return -1;
        }
    }

    // If one's a prefix of the other, the longer one is greater.
    if (a_components.length > b_components.length) {
        return 1;
    }

    if (a_components.length < b_components.length) {
        return -1;
    }

    // Otherwise they are the same.
    return 0;
}

console.log(compare("1", "2"));
console.log(compare("2", "1"));

console.log(compare("1.0", "1.0"));
console.log(compare("2.0", "1.0"));
console.log(compare("1.0", "2.0"));
console.log(compare("1.0.1", "1.0"));

---

This very small, yet very fast compare function takes version numbers of any length and any number size per segment.

Return values:
- a number < 0 if a < b
- a number > 0 if a > b
- 0 if a = b

So you can use it as compare function for Array.sort();

EDIT: Bugfixed Version stripping trailing zeros to recognize "1" and "1.0.0" as equal

function cmpVersions (a, b) {
    var i, diff;
    var regExStrip0 = /(\.0+)+$/;
    var segmentsA = a.replace(regExStrip0, '').split('.');
    var segmentsB = b.replace(regExStrip0, '').split('.');
    var l = Math.min(segmentsA.length, segmentsB.length);

    for (i = 0; i < l; i++) {
        diff = parseInt(segmentsA[i], 10) - parseInt(segmentsB[i], 10);
        if (diff) {
            return diff;
        }
    }
    return segmentsA.length - segmentsB.length;
}

// TEST
console.log(
['2.5.10.4159',
 '1.0.0',
 '0.5',
 '0.4.1',
 '1',
 '1.1',
 '0.0.0',
 '2.5.0',
 '2',
 '0.0',
 '2.5.10',
 '10.5',
 '1.25.4',
 '1.2.15'].sort(cmpVersions));
// Result:
// ["0.0.0", "0.0", "0.4.1", "0.5", "1.0.0", "1", "1.1", "1.2.15", "1.25.4", "2", "2.5.0", "2.5.10", "2.5.10.4159", "10.5"]

---

Simple and short function:

function isNewerVersion (oldVer, newVer) {
  const oldParts = oldVer.split('.')
  const newParts = newVer.split('.')
  for (var i = 0; i < newParts.length; i++) {
    const a = ~~newParts[i] // parse int
    const b = ~~oldParts[i] // parse int
    if (a > b) return true
    if (a < b) return false
  }
  return false
}

Tests:

isNewerVersion('1.0', '2.0') // true
isNewerVersion('1.0', '1.0.1') // true
isNewerVersion('1.0.1', '1.0.10') // true
isNewerVersion('1.0.1', '1.0.1') // false
isNewerVersion('2.0', '1.0') // false
isNewerVersion('2', '1.0') // false
isNewerVersion('2.0.0.0.0.1', '2.1') // true
isNewerVersion('2.0.0.0.0.1', '2.0') // false

---

Taken from http://java.com/js/deployJava.js:

    // return true if 'installed' (considered as a JRE version string) is
    // greater than or equal to 'required' (again, a JRE version string).
    compareVersions: function (installed, required) {

        var a = installed.split('.');
        var b = required.split('.');

        for (var i = 0; i < a.length; ++i) {
            a[i] = Number(a[i]);
        }
        for (var i = 0; i < b.length; ++i) {
            b[i] = Number(b[i]);
        }
        if (a.length == 2) {
            a[2] = 0;
        }

        if (a[0] > b[0]) return true;
        if (a[0] < b[0]) return false;

        if (a[1] > b[1]) return true;
        if (a[1] < b[1]) return false;

        if (a[2] > b[2]) return true;
        if (a[2] < b[2]) return false;

        return true;
    }

---

Here is another short version that works with any number of sub versions, padded zeros and even numbers with letters (1.0.0b3)

const compareVer = ((prep, repl) =>
{
  prep = t => ("" + t)
      //treat non-numerical characters as lower version
      //replacing them with a negative number based on charcode of first character
    .replace(/[^0-9\.]+/g, c => "." + (c.replace(/[\W_]+/, "").toLowerCase().charCodeAt(0) - 65536) + ".")
      //remove trailing "." and "0" if followed by non-numerical characters (1.0.0b);
    .replace(/(?:\.0+)*(\.-[0-9]+)(\.[0-9]+)?\.*$/g, "$1$2")
    .split('.');

  return (a, b, c, i, r) =>
  {
    a = prep(a);
    b = prep(b);
    for (i = 0, r = 0, c = Math.max(a.length, b.length); !r && i++ < c;)
    {
      r = -1 * ((a[i] = ~~a[i]) < (b[i] = ~~b[i])) + (a[i] > b[i]);
    }
    return r;
  }
})();

Function returns:

0 if a = b

1 if a > b

-1 if a < b

1.0         = 1.0.0.0.0.0
1.0         < 1.0.1
1.0b1       < 1.0
1.0b        = 1.0b
1.1         > 1.0.1b
1.1alpha    < 1.1beta
1.1rc1      > 1.1beta
1.1rc1      < 1.1rc2
1.1.0a1     < 1.1a2
1.1.0a10    > 1.1.0a1
1.1.0alpha  = 1.1a
1.1.0alpha2 < 1.1b1
1.0001      > 1.00000.1.0.0.0.01

/*use strict*/
const compareVer = ((prep, repl) =>
{
  prep = t => ("" + t)
      //treat non-numerical characters as lower version
      //replacing them with a negative number based on charcode of first character
    .replace(/[^0-9\.]+/g, c => "." + (c.replace(/[\W_]+/, "").toLowerCase().charCodeAt(0) - 65536) + ".")
      //remove trailing "." and "0" if followed by non-numerical characters (1.0.0b);
    .replace(/(?:\.0+)*(\.-[0-9]+)(\.[0-9]+)?\.*$/g, "$1$2")
    .split('.');

  return (a, b, c, i, r) =>
  {
    a = prep(a);
    b = prep(b);
    for (i = 0, r = 0, c = Math.max(a.length, b.length); !r && i++ < c;)
    {
      r = -1 * ((a[i] = ~~a[i]) < (b[i] = ~~b[i])) + (a[i] > b[i]);
    }
    return r;
  }
})();

//examples

let list = [
  ["1.0",         "1.0.0.0.0.0"],
  ["1.0",         "1.0.1"],
  ["1.0b1",       "1.0"],
  ["1.0b",        "1.0b"],
  ["1.1",         "1.0.1b"],
  ["1.1alpha",    "1.1beta"],
  ["1.1rc1",      "1.1beta"],
  ["1.1rc1",      "1.1rc2"],
  ["1.1.0a1",     "1.1a2"],
  ["1.1.0a10",    "1.1.0a1"],
  ["1.1.0alpha",  "1.1a"],
  ["1.1.0alpha2", "1.1b1"],
  ["1.0001",      "1.00000.1.0.0.0.01"]
]
for(let i = 0; i < list.length; i++)
{
  console.log( list[i][0] + " " + "<=>"[compareVer(list[i][0], list[i][1]) + 1] + " " + list[i][1] );
}

https://jsfiddle.net/vanowm/p7uvtbor/

---

Couldn't find a function doing what I wanted here. So I wrote my own. This is my contribution. I hope someone find it useful.

Pros:

• Handles version strings of arbitrary length. '1' or '1.1.1.1.1'.

• Defaults each value to 0 if not specified. Just because a string is longer doesn't mean it's a bigger version. ('1' should be the same as '1.0' and '1.0.0.0'.)

• Compare numbers not strings. ('3'<'21' should be true. Not false.)

• Don't waste time on useless compares in the loop. (Comparing for ==)

• You can choose your own comparator.

Cons:

• It does not handle letters in the version string. (I don't know how that would even work?)

My code, similar to the accepted answer by Jon:

function compareVersions(v1, comparator, v2) {
    "use strict";
    var comparator = comparator == '=' ? '==' : comparator;
    if(['==','===','<','<=','>','>=','!=','!=='].indexOf(comparator) == -1) {
        throw new Error('Invalid comparator. ' + comparator);
    }
    var v1parts = v1.split('.'), v2parts = v2.split('.');
    var maxLen = Math.max(v1parts.length, v2parts.length);
    var part1, part2;
    var cmp = 0;
    for(var i = 0; i < maxLen && !cmp; i++) {
        part1 = parseInt(v1parts[i], 10) || 0;
        part2 = parseInt(v2parts[i], 10) || 0;
        if(part1 < part2)
            cmp = 1;
        if(part1 > part2)
            cmp = -1;
    }
    return eval('0' + comparator + cmp);
}

Examples:

compareVersions('1.2.0', '==', '1.2'); // true
compareVersions('00001', '==', '1.0.0'); // true
compareVersions('1.2.0', '<=', '1.2'); // true
compareVersions('2.2.0', '<=', '1.2'); // false

---

2017 answer:

v1 = '20.0.12'; 
v2 = '3.123.12';

compareVersions(v1,v2) 
// return positive: v1 > v2, zero:v1 == v2, negative: v1 < v2 
function compareVersions(v1, v2) {
        v1= v1.split('.')
        v2= v2.split('.')
        var len = Math.max(v1.length,v2.length)
        /*default is true*/
        for( let i=0; i < len; i++)
            v1 = Number(v1[i] || 0);
            v2 = Number(v2[i] || 0);
            if (v1 !== v2) return v1 - v2 ;
            i++;
        }
        return 0;
    }

Simplest code for modern browsers:

 function compareVersion2(ver1, ver2) {
      ver1 = ver1.split('.').map( s => s.padStart(10) ).join('.');
      ver2 = ver2.split('.').map( s => s.padStart(10) ).join('.');
      return ver1 <= ver2;
 }

The idea here is to compare numbers but in the form of string. to make the comparison work the two strings must be at the same length. so:

"123" > "99" become "123" > "099"
padding the short number "fix" the comparison

Here I padding each part with zeros to lengths of 10. then just use simple string compare for the answer

Example :

var ver1 = '0.2.10', ver2=`0.10.2`
//become 
ver1 = '0000000000.0000000002.0000000010'
ver2 = '0000000000.0000000010.0000000002'
// then it easy to see that
ver1 <= ver2 // true

---

I faced the similar issue, and I had already created a solution for it. Feel free to give it a try.

It returns 0 for equal, 1 if the version is greater and -1 if it is less

function compareVersion(currentVersion, minVersion) {
  let current = currentVersion.replace(/\./g," .").split(' ').map(x=>parseFloat(x,10))
  let min = minVersion.replace(/\./g," .").split(' ').map(x=>parseFloat(x,10))

  for(let i = 0; i < Math.max(current.length, min.length); i++) {
    if((current[i] || 0) < (min[i] || 0)) {
      return -1
    } else if ((current[i] || 0) > (min[i] || 0)) {
      return 1
    }
  }
  return 0
}


console.log(compareVersion("81.0.1212.121","80.4.1121.121"));
console.log(compareVersion("81.0.1212.121","80.4.9921.121"));
console.log(compareVersion("80.0.1212.121","80.4.9921.121"));
console.log(compareVersion("4.4.0","4.4.1"));
console.log(compareVersion("5.24","5.2"));
console.log(compareVersion("4.1","4.1.2"));
console.log(compareVersion("4.1.2","4.1"));
console.log(compareVersion("4.4.4.4","4.4.4.4.4"));
console.log(compareVersion("4.4.4.4.4.4","4.4.4.4.4"));
console.log(compareVersion("0","1"));
console.log(compareVersion("1","1"));
console.log(compareVersion("1","1.0.00000.0000"));
console.log(compareVersion("","1"));
console.log(compareVersion("10.0.1","10.1"));

---

Although this question already has a lot of answers, each one promotes their own backyard-brewn solution, whilst we have a whole ecosystem of (battle-)tested libraries for this.

A quick search on NPM, GitHub, X will give us some lovely libs, and I'd want to run through some:

semver-compare is a great lightweight (~230 bytes) lib that's especially useful if you want to sort by version numbers, as the library's exposed method returns -1, 0 or 1 appropriately.

The core of the library:

module.exports = function cmp (a, b) {
    var pa = a.split('.');
    var pb = b.split('.');
    for (var i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
        var na = Number(pa[i]);
        var nb = Number(pb[i]);
        if (na > nb) return 1;
        if (nb > na) return -1;
        if (!isNaN(na) && isNaN(nb)) return 1;
        if (isNaN(na) && !isNaN(nb)) return -1;
    }
    return 0;
};

compare-semver is rather hefty in size (~4.4 kB gzipped), but allows for some nice unique comparisons like to find the minimum/maximum of a stack of versions or to find out if the provided version is unique or less than anything else in a collection of versions.

compare-versions is another small library (~630 bytes gzipped) and follows the spec nicely, meaning you can compare versions with alpha/beta flags and even wildcards (like for minor/patch versions: 1.0.x or 1.0.*)

The point being: there's not always a need to copy-paste code from Stack Overflow, if you can find decent, (unit-)tested versions via your package manager of choice.

---

Forgive me if this idea already been visited in a link I have not seen.

I have had some success with conversion of the parts into a weighted sum like so:

partSum = this.major * Math.Pow(10,9);
partSum += this.minor * Math.Pow(10, 6);
partSum += this.revision * Math.Pow(10, 3);
partSum += this.build * Math.Pow(10, 0);

Which made comparisons very easy (comparing a double). Our version fields are never more than 4 digits.

7.10.2.184  -> 7010002184.0
7.11.0.1385 -> 7011001385.0

I hope this helps someone, as the multiple conditionals seem a bit overkill.

---

You could use String#localeCompare with options

sensitivity

Which differences in the strings should lead to non-zero result values. Possible values are:

• "base": Only strings that differ in base letters compare as unequal. Examples: a ≠ b, a = á, a = A.
• "accent": Only strings that differ in base letters or accents and other diacritic marks compare as unequal. Examples: a ≠ b, a ≠ á, a = A.
• "case": Only strings that differ in base letters or case compare as unequal. Examples: a ≠ b, a = á, a ≠ A.
• "variant": Strings that differ in base letters, accents and other diacritic marks, or case compare as unequal. Other differences may also be taken into consideration. Examples: a ≠ b, a ≠ á, a ≠ A.

The default is "variant" for usage "sort"; it's locale dependent for usage "search".

numeric

Whether numeric collation should be used, such that "1" < "2" < "10". Possible values are true and false; the default is false. This option can be set through an options property or through a Unicode extension key; if both are provided, the options property takes precedence. Implementations are not required to support this property.

var versions = ["2.0.1", "2.0", "1.0", "1.0.1", "2.0.0.1"];

versions.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b, undefined, { numeric: true, sensitivity: 'base' }));

console.log(versions);

---

We can now use Intl.Collator API now to create numeric comparators. Browser support is pretty decent, but not supported in Node.js at the time of writing.

const semverCompare = new Intl.Collator("en", { numeric: true }).compare;

const versions = ['1.0.1', '1.10.2', '1.1.1', '1.10.1', '1.5.10', '2.10.0', '2.0.1'];

console.log(versions.sort(semverCompare))

const example2 = ["1.0", "1.0.1", "2.0", "2.0.0.1", "2.0.1"];
console.log(example2.sort(semverCompare))

---

A dead simple way:

function compareVer(previousVersion, currentVersion) {
 try {
    const [prevMajor, prevMinor = 0, prevPatch = 0] = previousVersion.split('.').map(Number);
    const [curMajor, curMinor = 0, curPatch = 0] = currentVersion.split('.').map(Number);

    if (curMajor > prevMajor) {
      return 'major update';
    }
    if (curMajor < prevMajor) {
      return 'major downgrade';
    }
    if (curMinor > prevMinor) {
      return 'minor update';
    }
    if (curMinor < prevMinor) {
      return 'minor downgrade';
    }
    if (curPatch > prevPatch) {
      return 'patch update';
    }
    if (curPatch < prevPatch) {
      return 'patch downgrade';
    }
    return 'same version';
  } catch (e) {
    return 'invalid format';
  }
}

Output:

compareVer("3.1", "3.1.1") // patch update
compareVer("3.1.1", "3.2") // minor update
compareVer("2.1.1", "1.1.1") // major downgrade
compareVer("1.1.1", "1.1.1") // same version

---

Check the function version_compare() from the php.js project. It's is similar to PHP's version_compare().

You can simply use it like this:

version_compare('2.0', '2.0.0.1', '<'); 
// returns true

---

My less verbose answer than most of the answers here

/**
 * Compare two semver versions. Returns true if version A is greater than
 * version B
 * @param {string} versionA
 * @param {string} versionB
 * @returns {boolean}
 */
export const semverGreaterThan = function(versionA, versionB){
  var versionsA = versionA.split(/\./g),
    versionsB = versionB.split(/\./g)
  while (versionsA.length || versionsB.length) {
    var a = Number(versionsA.shift()), b = Number(versionsB.shift())
    if (a == b)
      continue
    return (a > b || isNaN(b))
  }
  return false
}

---

The (most of the time) correct JavaScript answer in 2020

Both Nina Scholz in March 2020 and Sid Vishnoi in April 2020 post the modern answer:

var versions = ["2.0.1", "2.0", "1.0", "1.0.1", "2.0.0.1"];

versions.sort((a, b) => 
   a.localeCompare(b, undefined, { numeric: true, sensitivity: 'base' })
);

console.log(versions);

localCompare has been around for some time

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/Collator/Collator

But what about 1.0a and 1.0.1

localCompare doesn't solve that, still returns 1.0.1 , 1.0a

Michael Deal in his (longish &complex) solution already cracked that in 2013

He converts Numbers to another Base, so they can be sorted better

His answer got me thinking...

666 - Don't think in numbers - 999

Sorting is alphanumeric, based on the ASCII values, so let's (ab)use ASCII as the "base"

My solution is to convert 1.0.2.1 to b.a.c.b to bacb , and then sort

This solves 1.1 vs. 1.0.0.0.1 with: bb vs. baaab

And immediately solves the 1.0a and 1.0.1 sorting problem with notation: baa and bab

Conversion is done with:

    const str = s => s.match(/(\d+)|[a-z]/g)
                      .map(c => c == ~~c ? String.fromCharCode(97 + c) : c);

= Calculate ASCII value for 0...999 Numbers, otherwise concat letter

1.0a >>> [ "1" , "0" , "a" ] >>> [ "b" , "a" , "a" ]

For comparison sake there is no need to concatenate it to one string with .join("")

Oneliner

const sortVersions=(x,v=s=>s.match(/(\d+)|[a-z]/g)
                            .map(c=>c==~~c?String.fromCharCode(97+c):c))
                    =>x.sort((a,b)=>v(b)<v(a)?1:-1)

Test snippet:

function log(label,val){
  document.body.append(label,String(val).replace(/,/g," - "),document.createElement("BR"));
}

let v = ["1.90.1", "1.9.1", "1.89", "1.090", "1.2", "1.0a", "1.0.1", "1.10", "1.0.0a"];
log('not sorted input :',v);

v.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b,undefined,{numeric:true,sensitivity:'base'   }));
log(' locale Compare :', v); // 1.0a AFTER 1.0.1

const str = s => s.match(/(\d+)|[a-z]/g)
                  .map(c => c == ~~c ? String.fromCharCode(97 + c) : c);
const versionCompare = (a, b) => {
  a = str(a);
  b = str(b);
  return b < a ? 1 : a == b ? 0 : -1;
}

v.sort(versionCompare);
log('versionCompare:', v);

Note how 1.090 is sorted in both results.

My code will not solve the 001.012.001 notation mentioned in one answer, but the localeCompare gets that part of the challenge right.

You could combine the two methods:

• sort with .localCompare OR versionCompare when there is a letter involved

Final JavaScript solution

const sortVersions = (
  x,
  v = s => s.match(/[a-z]|\d+/g).map(c => c==~~c ? String.fromCharCode(97 + c) : c)
) => x.sort((a, b) => (a + b).match(/[a-z]/) 
                             ? v(b) < v(a) ? 1 : -1 
                             : a.localeCompare(b, 0, {numeric: true}))

let v=["1.90.1","1.090","1.0a","1.0.1","1.0.0a","1.0.0b","1.0.0.1"];
console.log(sortVersions(v));

---

Few lines of code and good if you don't want to allow letters or symbols. This works if you control the versioning scheme and it's not something a 3rd party provides.

// we presume all versions are of this format "1.4" or "1.10.2.3", without letters
// returns: 1 (bigger), 0 (same), -1 (smaller)
function versionCompare (v1, v2) {
  const v1Parts = v1.split('.')
  const v2Parts = v2.split('.')
  const length = Math.max(v1Parts.length, v2Parts.length)
  for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    const value = (parseInt(v1Parts[i]) || 0) - (parseInt(v2Parts[i]) || 0)
    if (value < 0) return -1
    if (value > 0) return 1
  }
  return 0
}

console.log(versionCompare('1.2.0', '1.2.4') === -1)
console.log(versionCompare('1.2', '1.2.0') === 0)
console.log(versionCompare('1.2', '1') === 1)
console.log(versionCompare('1.2.10', '1.2.1') === 1)
console.log(versionCompare('1.2.134230', '1.2.2') === 1)
console.log(versionCompare('1.2.134230', '1.3.0.1.2.3.1') === -1)

---

You can use a JavaScript localeCompare method:

a.localeCompare(b, undefined, { numeric: true })

Here is an example:

"1.1".localeCompare("2.1.1", undefined, { numeric: true }) => -1

"1.0.0".localeCompare("1.0", undefined, { numeric: true }) => 1

"1.0.0".localeCompare("1.0.0", undefined, { numeric: true }) => 0

---

// Returns true if v1 is bigger than v2, and false if otherwise.
function isNewerThan(v1, v2) {
      v1=v1.split('.');
      v2=v2.split('.');
      for(var i = 0; i<Math.max(v1.length,v2.length); i++){
        if(v1[i] == undefined) return false; // If there is no digit, v2 is automatically bigger
        if(v2[i] == undefined) return true; // if there is no digit, v1 is automatically bigger
        if(v1[i] > v2[i]) return true;
        if(v1[i] < v2[i]) return false;
      }
      return false; // Returns false if they are equal
    }

---

The idea is to compare two versions and know which is the biggest. We delete "." and we compare each position of the vector with the other.

// Return 1  if a > b
// Return -1 if a < b
// Return 0  if a == b

function compareVersions(a_components, b_components) {

   if (a_components === b_components) {
       return 0;
   }

   var partsNumberA = a_components.split(".");
   var partsNumberB = b_components.split(".");

   for (var i = 0; i < partsNumberA.length; i++) {

      var valueA = parseInt(partsNumberA[i]);
      var valueB = parseInt(partsNumberB[i]);

      // A bigger than B
      if (valueA > valueB || isNaN(valueB)) {
         return 1;
      }

      // B bigger than A
      if (valueA < valueB) {
         return -1;
      }
   }
}

---

The replace() function only replaces the first occurence in the string. So, lets replace the . with ,. Afterwards delete all . and make the , to . again and parse it to float.

for(i=0; i<versions.length; i++) {
    v = versions[i].replace('.', ',');
    v = v.replace(/\./g, '');
    versions[i] = parseFloat(v.replace(',', '.'));
}

finally, sort it:

versions.sort();

---

Check out this blog post. This function works for numeric version numbers.

function compVersions(strV1, strV2) {
  var nRes = 0
    , parts1 = strV1.split('.')
    , parts2 = strV2.split('.')
    , nLen = Math.max(parts1.length, parts2.length);

  for (var i = 0; i < nLen; i++) {
    var nP1 = (i < parts1.length) ? parseInt(parts1[i], 10) : 0
      , nP2 = (i < parts2.length) ? parseInt(parts2[i], 10) : 0;

    if (isNaN(nP1)) { nP1 = 0; }
    if (isNaN(nP2)) { nP2 = 0; }

    if (nP1 != nP2) {
      nRes = (nP1 > nP2) ? 1 : -1;
      break;
    }
  }

  return nRes;
};

compVersions('10', '10.0'); // 0
compVersions('10.1', '10.01.0'); // 0
compVersions('10.0.1', '10.0'); // 1
compVersions('10.0.1', '10.1'); // -1

---

If, for example, we want to check if the current jQuery version is less than 1.8, parseFloat($.ui.version) < 1.8 ) would give a wrong result if version is "1.10.1", since parseFloat("1.10.1") returns 1.1. A string compare would also go wrong, since "1.8" < "1.10" evaluates to false.

So we need a test like this

if(versionCompare($.ui.version, "1.8") < 0){
    alert("please update jQuery");
}

The following function handles this correctly:

/** Compare two dotted version strings (like '10.2.3').
 * @returns {Integer} 0: v1 == v2, -1: v1 < v2, 1: v1 > v2
 */
function versionCompare(v1, v2) {
    var v1parts = ("" + v1).split("."),
        v2parts = ("" + v2).split("."),
        minLength = Math.min(v1parts.length, v2parts.length),
        p1, p2, i;
    // Compare tuple pair-by-pair. 
    for(i = 0; i < minLength; i++) {
        // Convert to integer if possible, because "8" > "10".
        p1 = parseInt(v1parts[i], 10);
        p2 = parseInt(v2parts[i], 10);
        if (isNaN(p1)){ p1 = v1parts[i]; } 
        if (isNaN(p2)){ p2 = v2parts[i]; } 
        if (p1 == p2) {
            continue;
        }else if (p1 > p2) {
            return 1;
        }else if (p1 < p2) {
            return -1;
        }
        // one operand is NaN
        return NaN;
    }
    // The longer tuple is always considered 'greater'
    if (v1parts.length === v2parts.length) {
        return 0;
    }
    return (v1parts.length < v2parts.length) ? -1 : 1;
}

Here are some examples:

// compare dotted version strings
console.assert(versionCompare("1.8",      "1.8.1")    <   0);
console.assert(versionCompare("1.8.3",    "1.8.1")    >   0);
console.assert(versionCompare("1.8",      "1.10")     <   0);
console.assert(versionCompare("1.10.1",   "1.10.1")   === 0);
// Longer is considered 'greater'
console.assert(versionCompare("1.10.1.0", "1.10.1")   >   0);
console.assert(versionCompare("1.10.1",   "1.10.1.0") <   0);
// Strings pairs are accepted
console.assert(versionCompare("1.x",      "1.x")      === 0);
// Mixed int/string pairs return NaN
console.assert(isNaN(versionCompare("1.8", "1.x")));
//works with plain numbers
console.assert(versionCompare("4", 3)   >   0);

See here for a live sample and test suite: http://jsfiddle.net/mar10/8KjvP/

---

This is a neat trick. If you are dealing with numeric values, between a specific range of values, you can assign a value to each level of the version object. For instance "largestValue" is set to 0xFF here, which creates a very "IP" sort of look to your versioning.

This also handles alpha-numeric versioning (i.e. 1.2a < 1.2b)

// The version compare function
function compareVersion(data0, data1, levels) {
    function getVersionHash(version) {
        var value = 0;
        version = version.split(".").map(function (a) {
            var n = parseInt(a);
            var letter = a.replace(n, "");
            if (letter) {
                return n + letter[0].charCodeAt() / 0xFF;
            } else {
                return n;
            }
        });
        for (var i = 0; i < version.length; ++i) {
            if (levels === i) break;
            value += version[i] / 0xFF * Math.pow(0xFF, levels - i + 1);
        }
        return value;
    };
    var v1 = getVersionHash(data0);
    var v2 = getVersionHash(data1);
    return v1 === v2 ? -1 : v1 > v2 ? 0 : 1;
};
// Returns 0 or 1, correlating to input A and input B
// Direct match returns -1
var version = compareVersion("1.254.253", "1.254.253a", 3);

---

I made this based on Kons idea, and optimized it for Java version "1.7.0_45". It's just a function meant to convert a version string to a float. This is the function:

function parseVersionFloat(versionString) {
    var versionArray = ("" + versionString)
            .replace("_", ".")
            .replace(/[^0-9.]/g, "")
            .split("."),
        sum = 0;
    for (var i = 0; i < versionArray.length; ++i) {
        sum += Number(versionArray[i]) / Math.pow(10, i * 3);
    }
    console.log(versionString + " -> " + sum);
    return sum;
}

String "1.7.0_45" is converted to 1.0070000450000001 and this is good enough for a normal comparison. Error explained here: How to deal with floating point number precision in JavaScript?. If need more then 3 digits on any part you can change the divider Math.pow(10, i * 3);.

Output will look like this:

1.7.0_45         > 1.007000045
ver 1.7.build_45 > 1.007000045
1.234.567.890    > 1.23456789

---

Here's a coffeescript implementation suitable for use with Array.sort inspired by other answers here:

# Returns > 0 if v1 > v2 and < 0 if v1 < v2 and 0 if v1 == v2
compareVersions = (v1, v2) ->
  v1Parts = v1.split('.')
  v2Parts = v2.split('.')
  minLength = Math.min(v1Parts.length, v2Parts.length)
  if minLength > 0
    for idx in [0..minLength - 1]
      diff = Number(v1Parts[idx]) - Number(v2Parts[idx])
      return diff unless diff is 0
  return v1Parts.length - v2Parts.length

---

I wrote a node module for sorting versions, you can find it here: version-sort

Features:

• no limit of sequences '1.0.1.5.53.54654.114.1.154.45' works
• no limit of sequence length: '1.1546515465451654654654654138754431574364321353734' works
• can sort objects by version (see README)
• stages (like alpha, beta, rc1, rc2)

Do not hesitate to open an issue if you need an other feature.