Auto-Sorting

techguy1988

Hi,

I was wondering if there was an auto-sorting for a date in the following format ... DD/MM/YYYY. I understand there is one for DD/MM/YY but I would like to show the full year.

Can anyone help me out with this?

Many thanks.

allan

Anything which is picked up by the Javascript native Date.parse() method will be used as a date by DataTables. If your date format isn't automatically picked up then you'll need to use a sorting plug-in. This one for example looks like what you are after: http://datatables.net/plug-ins/sorting#date_euro_short

Allan

techguy1988

Sorry - I don't really understand? You mean any date is picked up automatically by the Date.Parse() function?

All I am using is a normal date like dd/mm/yyyy.

I am also noticing that with commas the currency is not displaying in descending order correctly. i.e. 1,000, should appear before 800, but for some reason 1,000 shows last!?

allan

No I mean if a string (any string, doesn't matter what) is found to be a date by Date.parse() then DataTables will treat it as a date. Your date format it would appear is not found to be a date - and kindly Andy McMaster has already provided a sorting function what this kind of date format.

For the comma issue, have a look at this plug-in: http://datatables.net/plug-ins/sorting#formatted_numbers . 1,000 isn't strictly an integer, it's a string with alphanumerics in it, so it isn't automatically picked up as a number. The formatted numbers plug-in allows it to be sorted as would be expected.

Allan

techguy1988

Hi Allan,

Thanks for you're help, unfortunately my numbers include a currency symbol and commas! What a disaster! Seems there is no automatic sorting for me.

I've tried a function that someone was using for the date (dd/mm/yyyy) and I was hoping it would "auto" sort it for me, is this the case? Or do I still need to include the sType? I say this because the tables I am building are built off user generated content, so I woulden't be able to know exactly what column number the data was in.

Thanks for you're help.

allan

The formatting numbers plugin should still work - did you try it? It will strip out any non-numeric data and force the value passed in to be a number. If it doesn't work, then it should be quite trivial to modify.

If you want 'auto sorting' detection, you need to use a type detection plugin - this one for example: http://datatables.net/plug-ins/type-detection#uk_date . The alternative to a automatic type detection is to specify sType.

Allan

techguy1988

Hi Allan,

I have installed the number's HTML one - I am not sure if this covers commas? But anyway's for some reason it doesn't seem to be working, have you any ideas?

[code]



jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort['num-html-desc'] = function(a,b) {
var x = a.replace( /<.*?>/g, "" );
var y = b.replace( /<.*?>/g, "" );
x = parseFloat( x );
y = parseFloat( y );
return ((x < y) ? 1 : ((x > y) ? -1 : 0));
};

jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.aTypes.push( function ( sData )
{
sData = typeof sData.replace == 'function' ?
sData.replace( /<.*?>/g, "" ) : sData;

var sValidFirstChars = "0123456789-";
var sValidChars = "0123456789.";
var Char;
var bDecimal = false;

/* Check for a valid first char (no period and allow negatives) */
Char = sData.charAt(0);
if (sValidFirstChars.indexOf(Char) == -1)
{
return null;
}

/* Check all the other characters are valid */
for ( var i=1 ; i

techguy1988

The strange this is - as soon as I add the stype on the datatable it all works as expected.

It would be a massive pain however if I had to go through each of my datatables and add a sorting type!!

allan

If it all works when you specify the sType, than that's good - that means the sorting is at least working. So the next step is to see what might be happening to the custom type detection. Try:

[code]
jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.aTypes.unshift( function ( sData )
[/code]
'unshift' rather than 'push' and see if that helps. I have a sneaking suspicion that your code might be being treated as type 'html' by DataTables.

Allan

techguy1988

Hi Allan,

Sorry but that doesn't work :(

Just doesn't seem to sort anything. P.S. I took the sType bit out to check if it was working.

allan

Can you link us to your page please so I can see where it is going wrong?

Allan

techguy1988

Hi Allan,

It's a closed system (internal) - do you have an email I can send to you for access?

Many thanks.

allan

You can get in touch using the contact form: http://datatables.net/contact :-)

Allan

techguy1988

Email sent :)