I saw this comment in the QoL suggestions thread, requesting the ability to pin ships to the top of the ship hangar by marking them as favorites. I didn’t want to litter that thread with non-suggestions (for CCP), so putting this here instead.
If you want to sort ships in your hangar, you could obviously name them in a manner that will sort in alpha or numeric order. This requires coming up with a system like, “all mining ships start with A, all haulers start with B, etc.” They will then sort in order except for the active ship, which always sorts to the top regardless of name.
Alternatively, and the system I use, is to prefix arbitrary ship names with a graphical unicode character. This acts as both a visual icon and the sort character. Not all unicode characters are supported in-game, but many are. You can find the complete table here.
The system I use (in sort order):
| Sym | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ⌹ | Suitcase |
| ▣ | Hauler |
 |
Taxi |
| ◆ | Ore miner |
| ◇ | Gas miner |
| ◈ | Salvager |
| ◉ | Exploration |
| ✸ | Combat |
So, for example, one of my combat ships is named “✸ Firebird” and (with all other combat ships) sorts to the bottom of the ship hangar list.
Anyway, just sharing in case anyone else might find this useful.