jQuery plugin: Tablesorter 2.0

# tablesorter

## Documentation

### Flexible client-side table sorting

Author: Christian Bach
Version: 2.0.4 (changelog)
Licence: Dual licensed under MIT or GPL licenses.

Helping out! If you like tablesorter and you're feeling generous, take a look at my Amazon Wish List

Comments and love letters can be sent to: christian at tablesorter dot com.

# Contents

1. Introduction
2. Demo
3. Getting started
4. Examples
5. Configuration
6. Download
7. Compatibility
8. Support
9. Credits

# Introduction

tablesorter is a jQuery plugin for turning a standard HTML table with THEAD and TBODY tags into a sortable table without page refreshes. tablesorter can successfully parse and sort many types of data including linked data in a cell. It has many useful features including:

- Multi-column sorting
- Parsers for sorting text, URIs, integers, currency, floats, IP addresses, dates (ISO, long and short formats), time. Add your own easily
- Support for ROWSPAN and COLSPAN on TH elements
- Support secondary "hidden" sorting (e.g., maintain alphabetical sort when sorting on other criteria)
- Extensibility via widget system
- Cross-browser: IE 6.0+, FF 2+, Safari 2.0+, Opera 9.0+
- Small code size

# Demo

First Name | Last Name | Age | Total | Discount | Difference | Date
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Peter | Parker | 28 | $9.99 | 20.9% | +12.1 | Jul 6, 2006 8:14 AM
John | Hood | 33 | $19.99 | 25% | +12 | Dec 10, 2002 5:14 AM
Clark | Kent | 18 | $15.89 | 44% | -26 | Jan 12, 2003 11:14 AM
Bruce | Almighty | 45 | $153.19 | 44.7% | +77 | Jan 18, 2001 9:12 AM
Bruce | Evans | 22 | $13.19 | 11% | -100.9 | Jan 18, 2007 9:12 AM
Bruce | Evans | 22 | $13.19 | 11% | 0 | Jan 18, 2007 9:12 AM

TIP! Sort multiple columns simultaneously by holding down the shift key and clicking a second, third or even fourth column header!

# Getting started

To use the tablesorter plugin, include the jQuery library and the tablesorter plugin inside the `<head>` tag of your HTML document:

    <script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/jquery-latest.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/jquery.tablesorter.js"></script>

tablesorter works on standard HTML tables. You must include THEAD and TBODY tags:

    <table id="myTable">
    <thead>
    <tr>
    	<th>Last Name</th>
    	<th>First Name</th>
    	<th>Email</th>
    	<th>Due</th>
    	<th>Web Site</th>
    </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
    <tr>
    	<td>Smith</td>
    	<td>John</td>
    	<td>jsmith@gmail.com</td>
    	<td>$50.00</td>
    	<td>http://www.jsmith.com</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    	<td>Bach</td>
    	<td>Frank</td>
    	<td>fbach@yahoo.com</td>
    	<td>$50.00</td>
    	<td>http://www.frank.com</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    	<td>Doe</td>
    	<td>Jason</td>
    	<td>jdoe@hotmail.com</td>
    	<td>$100.00</td>
    	<td>http://www.jdoe.com</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    	<td>Conway</td>
    	<td>Tim</td>
    	<td>tconway@earthlink.net</td>
    	<td>$50.00</td>
    	<td>http://www.timconway.com</td>
    </tr>
    </tbody>
    </table>

Start by telling tablesorter to sort your table when the document is loaded:

    $(document).ready(function()
    	{
    		$("#myTable").tablesorter();
    	}
    );

Click on the headers and you'll see that your table is now sortable! You can also pass in configuration options when you initialize the table. This tells tablesorter to sort on the first and second column in ascending order.

    $(document).ready(function()
    	{
    		$("#myTable").tablesorter( {sortList: [[0,0], [1,0]]} );
    	}
    );

NOTE! tablesorter will auto-detect most data types including numbers, dates, ip-adresses for more information see Examples

# Examples

These examples will show what's possible with tablesorter. You need Javascript enabled to run these samples, just like you and your users will need Javascript enabled to use tablesorter.

Basic

- Set a initial sorting order using options
- Dealing with digits!
- Disable header using options
- Sort table using a link outside the table
- Force a default sorting order
- Change the default multi-sorting key

Metadata - setting inline options

- Set a initial sorting order using metadata
- Disable header using metadata
- Setting column parser using metadata

Advanced

- Triggers sortEnd and sortStart(Displaying sorting progress)
- Appending table data with ajax
- Initializing tablesorter on a empty table
- Dealing with markup inside cells
- Extending default options
- Enableing debug mode
- Parser, writing your own
- Widgets, writing your own

Companion plugins

- Pager plugin

# Configuration

tablesorter has many options you can pass in at initialization to achieve different effects:

Property | Type | Default | Description | Link
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
sortList | Array | null | An array of instructions for per-column sorting and direction in the format: `[[columnIndex, sortDirection], ... ]` where columnIndex is a zero-based index for your columns left-to-right and sortDirection is 0 for Ascending and 1 for Descending. A valid argument that sorts ascending first by column 1 and then column 2 looks like: `[[0,0],[1,0]]` | Example
sortMultiSortKey | String | shiftKey | The key used to select more than one column for multi-column sorting. Defaults to the shift key. Other options might be ctrlKey, altKey. Reference: http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/DOM:event#Properties | Example
textExtraction | String Or Function | simple | Defines which method is used to extract data from a table cell for sorting. Built-in options include "simple" and "complex". Use complex if you have data marked up inside of a table cell like: `<td><strong><em>123 Main Street</em></strong></td>`. Complex can be slow in large tables so consider writing your own text extraction function "myTextExtraction" which you define like:
    var myTextExtraction = function(node)
    {
    	// extract data from markup and return it
    	return node.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].innerHTML;
    }
    $(document).ready(function()
    	{
    		$("#myTable").tableSorter( {textExtraction: myTextExtraction} );
    	}
    );
tablesorter will pass a jQuery object containing the contents of the current cell for you to parse and return. Thanks to Josh Nathanson for the examples. | Example
headers | Object | null | An object of instructions for per-column controls in the format: `headers: { 0: { option: setting }, ... }` For example, to disable sorting on the first two columns of a table: `headers: { 0: { sorter: false}, 1: {sorter: false} }` | Example
sortForce | Array | null | Use to add an additional forced sort that will be appended to the dynamic selections by the user. For example, can be used to sort people alphabetically after some other user-selected sort that results in rows with the same value like dates or money due. It can help prevent data from appearing as though it has a random secondary sort. | Example
widthFixed | Boolean | false | Indicates if tablesorter should apply fixed widths to the table columns. This is useful for the Pager companion. Requires the jQuery dimension plugin to work. | Example
cancelSelection | Boolean | true | Indicates if tablesorter should disable selection of text in the table header (TH). Makes header behave more like a button. |
cssHeader | String | "header" | The CSS style used to style the header in its unsorted state. Example from the blue skin:
    th.header {
    	background-image: url(../img/small.gif);
    	cursor: pointer;
    	font-weight: bold;
    	background-repeat: no-repeat;
    	background-position: center left;
    	padding-left: 20px;
    	border-right: 1px solid #dad9c7;
    	margin-left: -1px;
    }
cssAsc | String | "headerSortUp" | The CSS style used to style the header when sorting ascending. Example from the blue skin:
    th.headerSortUp {
    	background-image: url(../img/small_asc.gif);
    	background-color: #3399FF;
    }
cssDesc | String | "headerSortDown" | The CSS style used to style the header when sorting descending. Example from the blue skin:
    th.headerSortDown {
    	background-image: url(../img/small_desc.gif);
    	background-color: #3399FF;
    }
debug | Boolean | false | Boolean flag indicating if tablesorter should display debuging information usefull for development. | Example

# Download

Full release - Plugin, Documentation, Add-ons, Themes jquery.tablesorter.zip

Pick n choose - Place at least the required files in a directory on your webserver that is accessible to a web browser. Record this location.

Required:

- jQuery (1.2.1 or higher)
- jquery.tablesorter.min.js (12kb, Minified for production)

Optional/Add-Ons:

- metadata.js (3,7kb Required for setting inline options)
- jquery.tablesorter.js (17,7kb, for development)
- jquery.tablesorter.pager.js (3,6kb, tablesorter pagination plugin)

Widgets:

- Cookie Widget, By James Dempster

Themes:

- Green Skin - Images and CSS styles for green themed headers
- Blue Skin - Images and CSS styles for blue themed headers (as seen in the examples)

# Browser Compatibility

tablesorter has been tested successfully in the following browsers with Javascript enabled:

- Firefox 2+
- Internet Explorer 6+
- Safari 2+
- Opera 9+
- Konqueror

jQuery Browser Compatibility

# Support

Support is available through the jQuery Mailing List.

Access to the jQuery Mailing List is also available through Nabble Forums.

# Credits

Written by Christian Bach.

Documentation written by Brian Ghidinelli, based on Mike Alsup's great documention.

John Resig for the fantastic jQuery