jQuery.sortByData

jquery.sortbydata.js

 /*
 * SortByData
 * Copyright 2011 Dave Rupert
 * www.daverupert.com
 * 
 * Version 1.0   -   Updated: Apr. 18, 2011
 * Requires jQuery 1.5+
 *
 * This Plug-In sorts a list of of elements by any HTML5 data-attribute you specify.
 * It can also handle doing that by ASC or DESC order.
 *
 * This jQuery plug-in is dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses:
 *   http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 *   http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
 *
 * Sample Usages:
 * $("ul#videos").sortByData('ranking'); // Will sort a list videos by their `data-ranking` attribute. Defaults to 'DESC' (highest to lowest).
 * 
 * $("div#muppets").sortByData('created', 'ASC'); // Will sort sub-Divs of each muppet by the year they were created in their `data-created` attribute. Specified 'ASC' to sort lowest to highest.
 */

(function($) {
  $.fn.sortByData = function( metadata, order ) {
  		var order = order || "";
  		
      return this.each(function() {
          
          $( $(this).children().toArray().sort(function(a, b) {
          	if(order.toLowerCase() == 'asc') {
          		return $(a).data( metadata ) - $(b).data( metadata );
          	} else {
          		return $(b).data( metadata ) - $(a).data( metadata );
          	}
  				}) ).appendTo($(this));
          
      });
  };
})(jQuery);

Normal JS style is
var order = order || "";
instead of
var order = order ? order : "";

sweet! thanks for the help!