Sorting DataTable jquery excluding whitespace in the text fields

Question

My scenario:

I am trying to sort date column of the table which uses DataTable jquery plugin and I have sorted the table but with the text fields having white-spaces. Hence, when I sort "ASC" order, then the empty text fields will occupy at first. This should not happen. I want to sort the table excluding the empty text boxes.

I tried the following code:

jQuery.extend(jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
"customdatesort-pre": function (formElement) {
    // returns the "weight" of a cell value
    var r, x;
    var a = $(formElement).val();

    if (a === null || a === "") {
        // for empty cells: weight is a "special" value which needs special handling
        r = false;
    } else {
        // otherwise: weight is the "time value" of the date
        x = a.split("/");
        r = +new Date(+x[2], +x[1] - 1, +x[0]);
    }
    //console.log("[PRECALC] " + a + " becomes " + r);
    return r;
},
"customdatesort-asc": function (a, b) {
    // return values are explained in Array.prototype.sort documentation
    if (a === false && b === false) {
        // if both are empty cells then order does not matter
        return 0;
    } else if (a === false) {
        // if a is an empty cell then consider a greater than b
        return 1;
    } else if (b === false) {
        // if b is an empty cell then consider a less than b
        return -1;
    } else {
        // common sense
        return a - b;
    }
},
"customdatesort-desc": function (a, b) {
    if (a === false && b === false) {
        return 0;
    } else if (a === false) {
        return 1;
    } else if (b === false) {
        return -1;
    } else {
        return b - a;
    }
}
});

Problem I found with this code:

In the above code, you can see the "customdatesort-pre": function (formElement) . The parameter formElement is taking only the empty values and not the textboxes with some date values.

What I need:

I need to sort the date columns excluding the empty textboxes.

davidkonrad · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-06 09:26:30Z

1

With custom sorting pre obsoletes asc and desc. If you have defined a pre then the asc and desc methods will never be called. pre is meant as an optimisation feature, it is called once for each cell, and then the internal sorter will use that result for sorting. See this thread on datatables.net.

Instead you could place the pre function code outside the custom sort literal and call it from within the asc and desc methods :

customdatesortPre = function (formElement) {
  //customdatesort-pre code
}
jQuery.extend(jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
  "customdatesort-asc": function (a, b) {
    a = customdatesortPre(a), b = customdatesortPre(b);
    ...
  },
  "customdatesort-desc": function (a, b) {
    a = customdatesortPre(a), b = customdatesortPre(b);
    ...
  }
});

demo -> http://jsfiddle.net/9j9gpsrn/

edited May 6, 2016 at 9:26

answered May 6, 2016 at 9:10

davidkonrad

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