A pandoc lua filter that sorts definition lists

sort_definition_list.lua

DefinitionList = function(dl)
  local terms = {}
  local inlines = {}
  local blocks = {}
  local sorted = {}
  for i, item in ipairs(dl.content) do
    local term = string.upper(pandoc.utils.stringify(item[1])) --string.upper() is used because all the terms were not capitalized in the example
    table.insert(terms, term)
    inlines[term] = item[1]
    blocks[term] = item[2]
  end
  table.sort(terms)
  for i, term in ipairs(terms) do
    table.insert(sorted, {inlines[term], blocks[term]})
  end
  return pandoc.DefinitionList(sorted)
end