Multi-column ordering

DataTables allows ordering by multiple columns at the same time, which can be activated in a number of different ways:

  • User shift click on a column (added the clicked column as a secondary, tertiary etc ordering column).
  • On a per-column basis (i.e. order by a specific column and then a secondary column if the data in the first column is identical), through the columns.orderData option.
  • Using the columns.orderData option to specify a multiple column order by default (for example [ 0, 1 ]).
  • Through the order() API method.

Note that, the ability for the user to shift click to order multiple columns can be disabled through the orderMulti option.

The example below shows the first column having a secondary order applied to the second column in the table, vice-versa for the second column being tied directly to the first and the salary column to the first name column.

First name Last name Position Office Salary
Tiger Nixon System Architect Edinburgh 320800
Garrett Winters Accountant Tokyo 170750
Ashton Cox Junior Technical Author San Francisco 86000
Cedric Kelly Senior Javascript Developer Edinburgh 433060
Airi Satou Accountant Tokyo 162700
Brielle Williamson Integration Specialist New York 372000
Herrod Chandler Sales Assistant San Francisco 137500
Rhona Davidson Integration Specialist Tokyo 327900
Colleen Hurst Javascript Developer San Francisco 205500
Sonya Frost Software Engineer Edinburgh 103600
Jena Gaines Office Manager London 90560
Quinn Flynn Support Lead Edinburgh 342000
Charde Marshall Regional Director San Francisco 470600
Haley Kennedy Senior Marketing Designer London 313500
Tatyana Fitzpatrick Regional Director London 385750
Michael Silva Marketing Designer London 198500
Paul Byrd Chief Financial Officer (CFO) New York 725000
Gloria Little Systems Administrator New York 237500
Bradley Greer Software Engineer London 132000
Dai Rios Personnel Lead Edinburgh 217500
Jenette Caldwell Development Lead New York 345000
Yuri Berry Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) New York 675000
Caesar Vance Pre-Sales Support New York 106450
Doris Wilder Sales Assistant Sydney 85600
Angelica Ramos Chief Executive Officer (CEO) London 1200000
Gavin Joyce Developer Edinburgh 92575
Jennifer Chang Regional Director Singapore 357650
Brenden Wagner Software Engineer San Francisco 206850
Fiona Green Chief Operating Officer (COO) San Francisco 850000
Shou Itou Regional Marketing Tokyo 163000
Michelle House Integration Specialist Sydney 95400
Suki Burks Developer London 114500
Prescott Bartlett Technical Author London 145000
Gavin Cortez Team Leader San Francisco 235500
Martena Mccray Post-Sales support Edinburgh 324050
Unity Butler Marketing Designer San Francisco 85675
Howard Hatfield Office Manager San Francisco 164500
Hope Fuentes Secretary San Francisco 109850
Vivian Harrell Financial Controller San Francisco 452500
Timothy Mooney Office Manager London 136200
Jackson Bradshaw Director New York 645750
Olivia Liang Support Engineer Singapore 234500
Bruno Nash Software Engineer London 163500
Sakura Yamamoto Support Engineer Tokyo 139575
Thor Walton Developer New York 98540
Finn Camacho Support Engineer San Francisco 87500
Serge Baldwin Data Coordinator Singapore 138575
Zenaida Frank Software Engineer New York 125250
Zorita Serrano Software Engineer San Francisco 115000
Jennifer Acosta Junior Javascript Developer Edinburgh 75650
Cara Stevens Sales Assistant New York 145600
Hermione Butler Regional Director London 356250
Lael Greer Systems Administrator London 103500
Jonas Alexander Developer San Francisco 86500
Shad Decker Regional Director Edinburgh 183000
Michael Bruce Javascript Developer Singapore 183000
Donna Snider Customer Support New York 112000
  • Javascript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Ajax
  • Server-side script
  • Comments

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

$('#example').DataTable({ columnDefs: [ { targets: [0], orderData: [0, 1] }, { targets: [1], orderData: [1, 0] }, { targets: [4], orderData: [4, 0] } ] });
new DataTable('#example', { columnDefs: [ { targets: [0], orderData: [0, 1] }, { targets: [1], orderData: [1, 0] }, { targets: [4], orderData: [4, 0] } ] });

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

    The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

    This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

    The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

      This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

      The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.

      Other examples