Sorting table results using numeric sorting

nickelmedia

I have a column that outputs multiple alphanumeric pairs per row. This data is pulled in from MySQL via a wordpress plugin. In every case, this data is out of numeric order and I'm hoping datatables might be able to solve it.

Example:

Table Cell currently contains: 9U 8U 12U 11U 10U
I want the cell to be sorted like: 8U 9U 10U 11U 12U

I was looking at the Sorting plugins (http://www.datatables.net/plug-ins/sorting) and think I'm on the right path, but don't really know how to implement. I've created a live site of the code I tried with some sample data as it displays on my site, but got no results. I'm clueless when it comes to jquery.

http://live.datatables.net/unixak/edit

Thanks!

allan

It is out of numeric order because, of course, the data is not numeric - so DataTables is string sorting it.

There are two options:

1. Use the natural sorting plug-in, which I think is probably the best option here.
2. If it is always going to be postfixed with 'U' you could strip the 'U' and then sort numerically on that - the formatted numbers plug-in should do that as it strips all non-numeric data.

Allan

nickelmedia

Allan, I've got naturalSort in and half working. It sorts the column by the beginning number of each cell as I want it to, however the individual numbers within the cell are still out of order.

Here a link to the site: http://www.floridausssasports.com/event-list/

And here's the code dump:

[code]

/*
* Natural Sort algorithm for Javascript - Version 0.6 - Released under MIT license
* Author: Jim Palmer (based on chunking idea from Dave Koelle)
* Contributors: Mike Grier (mgrier.com), Clint Priest, Kyle Adams, guillermo
*/
function naturalSort (a, b) {
var re = /(^-?[0-9]+(\.?[0-9]*)[df]?e?[0-9]?$|^0x[0-9a-f]+$|[0-9]+)/gi,
sre = /(^[ ]*|[ ]*$)/g,
dre = /(^([\w ]+,?[\w ]+)?[\w ]+,?[\w ]+\d+:\d+(:\d+)?[\w ]?|^\d{1,4}[\/\-]\d{1,4}[\/\-]\d{1,4}|^\w+, \w+ \d+, \d{4})/,
hre = /^0x[0-9a-f]+$/i,
ore = /^0/,
// convert all to strings and trim()
x = a.toString().replace(sre, '') || '',
y = b.toString().replace(sre, '') || '',
// chunk/tokenize
xN = x.replace(re, '\0$1\0').replace(/\0$/,'').replace(/^\0/,'').split('\0'),
yN = y.replace(re, '\0$1\0').replace(/\0$/,'').replace(/^\0/,'').split('\0'),
// numeric, hex or date detection
xD = parseInt(x.match(hre)) || (xN.length != 1 && x.match(dre) && Date.parse(x)),
yD = parseInt(y.match(hre)) || xD && y.match(dre) && Date.parse(y) || null;
// first try and sort Hex codes or Dates
if (yD)
if ( xD < yD ) return -1;
else if ( xD > yD ) return 1;
// natural sorting through split numeric strings and default strings
for(var cLoc=0, numS=Math.max(xN.length, yN.length); cLoc < numS; cLoc++) {
// find floats not starting with '0', string or 0 if not defined (Clint Priest)
oFxNcL = !(xN[cLoc] || '').match(ore) && parseFloat(xN[cLoc]) || xN[cLoc] || 0;
oFyNcL = !(yN[cLoc] || '').match(ore) && parseFloat(yN[cLoc]) || yN[cLoc] || 0;
// handle numeric vs string comparison - number < string - (Kyle Adams)
if (isNaN(oFxNcL) !== isNaN(oFyNcL)) return (isNaN(oFxNcL)) ? 1 : -1;
// rely on string comparison if different types - i.e. '02' < 2 != '02' < '2'
else if (typeof oFxNcL !== typeof oFyNcL) {
oFxNcL += '';
oFyNcL += '';
}
if (oFxNcL < oFyNcL) return -1;
if (oFxNcL > oFyNcL) return 1;
}
return 0;
}


jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort['string-asc'] = function(a,b) {
return naturalSort(a,b);
};

jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort['string-desc'] = function(a,b) {
return naturalSort(a,b) * -1;
};


$(document).ready(function() {
var oTable = $('#example').dataTable({
"bPaginate": false,
"oSearch": {"sSearch": $.urlParam('search')},
"aoColumnsDefs": [
null,
null,
null,
{ "sType": "natural" }
]
} );
$('#district').change( function () {
oTable.fnFilter( $(this).val() );


} );
} );

[/code]

Thanks!

nickelmedia

Can anyone help me with this?

allan

The numbers in the cell such as:

> 8U 14U 13U 12U 11U 10U

?

DataTables will never sort information inside a cell I'm afraid. You'd need to modify whatever script you are using to generate that HTML to have it sorted correctly. An `order by` in an SQL statement I'd guess?

Allan

nickelmedia

Thank you!