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Sorting HTML Tables using Javascript

Han Yu
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4.68/5 (28 votes)

Nov 25, 2001

2 min read

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657114

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11378

A simple method of making your HTML tables sortable. No additional coding necessary!

demo image

Introduction

This JavaScript code can be used to convert tables in ordinary HTML into sortable ones by associating each title column with an onClick event to automatically sort the data rows.

No additional coding is necessary. All you need to do is give your table an ID field, include the sortTable.js file and call initTable in your document's onLoad method. 

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Sample Table</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY onLoad='initTable("table0");'>

<SCRIPT SRC="sortTable.js"></SCRIPT>

<TABLE ID="table0" BORDER=1>
	<TBODY>
	<TR><TD ROWSPAN=2>NO</TD><TD COLSPAN=2>IDS</TD><TD ROWSPAN=2>Date</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD>ID</TD><TD>Device ID</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD COLSPAN=4>&nbsp;</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD COLSPAN=3>&nbsp;</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD>1</TD><TD>k</TD><TD>00030</TD><TD>11/09/01 12:14:00 pm</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD>2</TD><TD>c</TD><TD>00006</TD><TD>11/11/01 12:15:00 pm</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD>3</TD><TD>a</TD><TD>00016</TD><TD>10/16/01 08:14:00 am</TD></TR>
	<TR><TD>4</TD><TD>b</TD><TD>00031</TD><TD>09/05/01 10:05:00 am</TD></TR>
</TABLE>

History

27 Nov 2001 - updated source

3 Dec 2001 - updated source to include better comments. Also changed the main engine so that the data rows with various properties can be swapped as a whole. This change makes the script more flexible

6 Dec 2001 - The script now uses delete/insertCell for all the cell manipulation. So, what does this mean? Well, it's really flexible now. It should retain all the cell properties even when the script gets applied, including those of the title cells.

18 Dec 2001 - Fixed a few more bugs and improved the script so that it can handle different types of title cells.

23 Jan 2002 - Updated source files

15 Mar 2002

  • Automatic sort upon page load
  • Handling of <THEAD> <TFOOT> tags

5 Apr 2002

  • The script now preserves most common cell properties.
  • Bug fix in isDate method.

10 Apr 2002

  • Title rows can now be in a separate table
  • CSS preserved for cells
  • Bug fix in the status caption
  • Title link events now propagated to the entire cells

25 Apr 2002

  • Removes HTML tags when comparing cell content

25 July 2002:

  • Handles Euro date format
  • Fixed up/down replacement reg exp
  • Title column hints (via TITLE) added
  • Changed up/down char to up/down arrows
  • Up/down arrows get displayed if doSortUponLoad is set
  • Added a new feature to allow skipping columns when sorting
  • Title cells can be highlighted (bgcolor chaged) onMouseOver ...

25 Sep 2002:

  • Mouse pointer becomes hourglass while sorting
  • Bug fix where sorting is mistakenly done twice if doSortUponLoad is set
  • Sort direction alternates even between tables