Sorting Characters Based on Date Last Played

sortCharacter.js

// Edited character summary object returned from Bungie API
var characters = [
  {
    "characterBase": {
      "membershipId": "4611686018431328330",
      "membershipType": 1,
      "characterId": "2305843009319995052",
      "dateLastPlayed": "2017-03-13T01:18:03Z",
      "minutesPlayedThisSession": "57",
      "minutesPlayedTotal": "19702",
      "powerLevel": 397,
      "raceHash": 898834093,
      "genderHash": 3111576190,
      "classHash": 671679327,
      "currentActivityHash": 2624916786,
      "lastCompletedStoryHash": 0,
      "stats": {
        // Removed
      },
      "customization": {
        // Removed
      },
      "grimoireScore": 4765,
      "peerView": {
        "equipment": [
          // Removed
        ]
      },
      "genderType": 0,
      "classType": 1,
      "buildStatGroupHash": 3155986019
    },
    "levelProgression": {
      // Removed
    },
    "emblemPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/ca5d81851ae0160d140f0289f9e8fbf9.jpg",
    "backgroundPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/2bb9d04d3c900c4097e6b5d6648b3c98.jpg",
    "emblemHash": 185564348,
    "characterLevel": 40,
    "baseCharacterLevel": 40,
    "isPrestigeLevel": false,
    "percentToNextLevel": 0
  },
  {
    "characterBase": {
      "membershipId": "4611686018431328330",
      "membershipType": 1,
      "characterId": "2305843009317038347",
      "dateLastPlayed": "2017-03-13T00:19:57Z",
      "minutesPlayedThisSession": "133",
      "minutesPlayedTotal": "21361",
      "powerLevel": 399,
      "raceHash": 2803282938,
      "genderHash": 3111576190,
      "classHash": 3655393761,
      "currentActivityHash": 3743955707,
      "lastCompletedStoryHash": 0,
      "stats": {
        // Removed
      },
      "customization": {
        // Removed
      },
      "grimoireScore": 4765,
      "peerView": {
        "equipment": [
          // Removed
        ]
      },
      "genderType": 0,
      "classType": 0,
      "buildStatGroupHash": 3801959103
    },
    "levelProgression": {
      // Removed
    },
    "emblemPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/554711da7670d66003fc8064bb1f348c.jpg",
    "backgroundPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/3a429921a7fbe60853fdbea6c1044780.jpg",
    "emblemHash": 185564345,
    "characterLevel": 40,
    "baseCharacterLevel": 40,
    "isPrestigeLevel": false,
    "percentToNextLevel": 0
  },
  {
    "characterBase": {
      "membershipId": "4611686018431328330",
      "membershipType": 1,
      "characterId": "2305843009370869765",
      "dateLastPlayed": "2016-11-20T00:53:06Z",
      "minutesPlayedThisSession": "15",
      "minutesPlayedTotal": "3375",
      "powerLevel": 374,
      "raceHash": 2803282938,
      "genderHash": 3111576190,
      "classHash": 2271682572,
      "currentActivityHash": 0,
      "lastCompletedStoryHash": 0,
      "stats": {
        // Removed
      },
      "customization": {
        // Removed
      },
      "grimoireScore": 4765,
      "peerView": {
        "equipment": [
          // Removed
        ]
      },
      "genderType": 0,
      "classType": 2,
      "buildStatGroupHash": 1997970403
    },
    "levelProgression": {
      // Removed
    },
    "emblemPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/0577a447173823c6bfdc1aba73fa0603.jpg",
    "backgroundPath": "/common/destiny_content/icons/c652f6ea7bc0ed568d5f23eb82839fbb.jpg",
    "emblemHash": 1722936866,
    "characterLevel": 40,
    "baseCharacterLevel": 40,
    "isPrestigeLevel": false,
    "percentToNextLevel": 0
  }
];

// Create empty array to store properties that I will be sorting against. 
var dates = [];

// Use Array.prototype.map to itterate over the array and assign an index 
// and the property of "dateLastPlayed" to the dates array
characters.map((prop, i)=>{  
  dates.push({index: i, value: prop.characterBase.dateLastPlayed})
})

// Sort the dates array, because that is more performant than sorting the 
// whole character object.
var result = dates.map(function(el){
  return characters[el.index];
});

// Return the results
// did this on JSBin and it works with the above object. 
console.log(result)

The solution ended up being a lot simpler than this by the way...

vm.characterData = response.data.Response.data;

// chars equals the character object in the above sample
let chars = vm.characterData.character

// Empty array to store our active character/s
let active = []

// Find any active characters
// And yes, this could be accomplished with .map or .filter even, but it works, so... 
for (let i = 0; i < chars.length; i++) {
  if (chars[i].characterBase.currentActivityHash > 0) {
    active.push(chars[i]);
  }
}

// Works out that the most recent active character is adding to the first index anyway
// So all I have to do is select it.
vm.activeCharacter = active[0]