how do I create an array in jquery?

Some thoughts:

• jQuery is a JavaScript library, not a language. So, JavaScript arrays look something like this:

  var someNumbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
  

• { pageNo: $(this).text(), sortBy: $("#sortBy").val()} is a map of key to value. If you want an array of the keys or values, you can do something like this:

  var keys = [];
  var values = [];
  
  var object = { pageNo: $(this).text(), sortBy: $("#sortBy").val()};
  $.each(object, function(key, value) {
      keys.push(key);
      values.push(value);
  });
  

• objects in JavaScript are incredibly flexible. If you want to create an object {foo: 1}, all of the following work:

  var obj = {foo: 1};
  
  var obj = {};
  obj['foo'] = 1;
  
  var obj = {};
  obj.foo = 1;
  

To wrap up, do you want this?

var data = {};
// either way of changing data will work:
data.pageNo = $(this).text();
data['sortBy'] = $("#sortBy").val();

$("#results").load("jquery-routing.php", data);