A Clean and Refreshing Sortable Table

September 20th, 2007 Posted by Don Albrecht

A nice unobtrusive table sort that doesn’t rely on any bulky tookits. Could be just what the doctor ordered for your next project or for adding new life to the clunky old app running the back office.

The Features

Plays nicely with the JavaScript global namespace (the script creates and reuses only one JavaScript object)
The new script sorts (on average – based on my very non-scientific calculations), 5 times faster than its predecessor
The plug-in architecture makes writing custom sort functions a breeze
The script can now highlight both alternate rows and full columns on a table by table basis.
Like its predecessor, the script is fully keyboard accessible
The script can correctly determine a columns datatype should a datatype not be explicitly defined
The script is smart enough not to sort columns containing identical data
Sort routines can now be initiated using JavaScript
Tables can be automatically sorted on a column of your choice
Before-sort and after-sort callback functions can now be defined for individual tables
The script can now “reverse sort”