JavaScript Data GridRow Sorting

This page describes how to sort row data in the grid and how you can customise that sorting to match your requirements.

Sorting

Sorting is enabled by default for all columns. You can sort a column by clicking on the column header. To enable / disable sorting per column use the sortable column definition attribute.

const gridOptions = {
    columnDefs: [
        { field: 'name' },
        { field: 'age' },
        // disable sorting by address
        { field: 'address', sortable: false },
    ],

    // other grid options ...
}

To disable sorting for all columns, set sorting in the default column definition.

const gridOptions = {
    // disable sorting on all columns
    defaultColDef: {
        sortable: false
    },
    columnDefs: [
        // Override default to enable sorting by name
        { field: 'name', sortable: true },
        { field: 'age' },
        { field: 'address' },
    ],

    // other grid options ...
}

Custom Sorting

Custom sorting is provided at a column level by configuring a comparator on the column definition.

const gridOptions = {
    columnDefs: [
        {
            field: 'age',
            // simple number comparator
            comparator: (valueA, valueB, nodeA, nodeB, isDescending) => valueA - valueB
        },
        {
            field: 'name',
            // simple string comparator
            comparator: (valueA, valueB, nodeA, nodeB, isDescending) => {
                if (valueA == valueB) return 0;
                return (valueA > valueB) ? 1 : -1;
            }
        }
    ],

    // other grid options ...
}

Custom Sorting Example

Example below shows the following:

• Default sorting on the Athlete column.
• When the Year column is not sorted, it shows a custom icon (up/down arrow).
• The Date column has strings as the row data, but has a custom comparator so that when you sort this column it sorts as dates, not as strings.

Multi Column Sorting

It is possible to sort by multiple columns. The default action for multiple column sorting is for the user to hold down ⇧ Shift while clicking the column header. To change the default action to use the ^ Ctrl key (or Command key on Apple) instead set the property multiSortKey='ctrl'.

The example below demonstrates the following:

• The grid sorts by Country then Athlete by default.
• The property multiSortKey='ctrl' is set so multiple column sorting is achieved by holding down ^ Ctrl (or Command on Apple) and selecting multiple columns.

Sorting Animation

By default rows will animate after sorting. If you wish to suppress this animation set the grid property animateRows=false.

Sorting Order

By default, the sorting order is as follows:

ascending -> descending -> none.

In other words, when you click a column that is not sorted, it will sort ascending. The next click will make it sort descending. Another click will remove the sort.

It is possible to override this behaviour by providing your own sortingOrder on either the gridOptions or the colDef. If defined both in colDef and gridOptions, the colDef will get preference, allowing you to define a common default, and then tailor per column.

Example: Sorting Order

The example below shows different combinations of sorting orders as follows:

• Default Columns: descending -> ascending -> no sort
• Column Athlete: ascending -> descending
• Column Age: descending -> ascending
• Column Country: descending -> no sort
• Column Year: ascending only

Sorting API

What sorting is applied is controlled via Column State. The below examples uses the Column State API to control column sorting.

Accented Sort

By default sorting doesn't take into consideration locale-specific characters. If you need to make your sort locale-specific you can configure this by setting the grid option accentedSort = true.

Using this feature is more expensive; if you need to sort a very large amount of data, you might find that this causes the sort to be noticeably slower.

The following example is configured to use this feature.

Post-Sort

It is also possible to perform some post-sorting if you require additional control over the sorted rows.

This is provided via the postSortRows grid callback function as shown below:

const gridOptions = {
    postSortRows: params => {
        let rowNodes = params.nodes;
        // here we put Ireland rows on top while preserving the sort order
        let nextInsertPos = 0;
        for (let i = 0; i < rowNodes.length; i++) {
            const country = rowNodes[i].data.country;
            if (country === 'Ireland') {
                rowNodes.splice(nextInsertPos, 0, rowNodes.splice(i, 1)[0]);
                nextInsertPos++;
            }
        }
    },

    // other grid options ...
}

The following example uses this configuration to perform a post-sort on the rows. The custom function puts rows with Ireland at the top always.