Table Sort

[jeffsal]

I am using sorttable.js to sort a table which works fine which allows a
user to sort the table by clicking on the column header. Is there some
code I could add to the page (onload or something) to auto sort by the
first column without user clicking on it. Here is the sorttable.js
code.

addEvent(window, "load", sortables_init);

var SORT_COLUMN_INDEX;

function sortables_init() {
// Find all tables with class sortable and make them sortable
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
tbls = document.getElementsByTagName("table");
for (ti=0;ti<tbls.length;ti++) {
thisTbl = tbls[ti];
if (((' '+thisTbl.className+' ').indexOf("sortable") != -1) &&
(thisTbl.id)) {
//initTable(thisTbl.id);
ts_makeSortable(thisTbl);
}
}
}

function ts_makeSortable(table) {
if (table.rows && table.rows.length > 0) {
var firstRow = table.rows[0];
}
if (!firstRow) return;

// We have a first row: assume it's the header, and make its
contents clickable links
for (var i=0;i<firstRow.cells.length;i++) {
var cell = firstRow.cells;
var txt = ts_getInnerText(cell);
if (cell.getAttribute('sortsuppress')) {
continue;
}
cell.innerHTML = '<a href="#" class="sortheader"
onclick="ts_resortTable(this);return false;">'+txt+'<span
class="sortarrow">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></a>';
}
}

function ts_getInnerText(el) {
if (typeof el == "string") return el;
if (typeof el == "undefined") { return el };
if (el.innerText) return el.innerText; //Not needed but it is faster
var str = "";

var cs = el.childNodes;
var l = cs.length;
for (var i = 0; i < l; i++) {
switch (cs.nodeType) {
case 1: //ELEMENT_NODE
str += ts_getInnerText(cs);
break;
case 3: //TEXT_NODE
str += cs.nodeValue;
break;
}
}
return str;
}

function ts_resortTable(lnk) {
// get the span
var span;
for (var ci=0;ci<lnk.childNodes.length;ci++) {
if (lnk.childNodes[ci].tagName &&
lnk.childNodes[ci].tagName.toLowerCase() == 'span') span =
lnk.childNodes[ci];
}
var spantext = ts_getInnerText(span);
var td = lnk.parentNode;
var column = td.cellIndex;
var table = getParent(td,'TABLE');
var row_count = 0;
var test_row = 1;
var i, el;

var sortval =
table.rows[test_row].cells[column].getAttribute('sortval');

// Work out a type for the column
if (table.rows.length <= 1) return;
for (i=1; i<table.rows.length; i++) {
if (table.rows.id.indexOf('section_row') == -1) {
test_row = i;
break;
}
}

if (typeof(sortval) !='undefined' && sortval)
{
sortfn = ts_sort_sortval;
} else {
var itm = ts_getInnerText(table.rows[test_row].cells[column]);
sortfn = ts_sort_caseinsensitive;
if (itm.match(/^\d\d[\/-]\d\d[\/-]\d\d\d\d$/)) sortfn =
ts_sort_date;
if (itm.match(/^\d\d[\/-]\d\d[\/-]\d\d$/)) sortfn = ts_sort_date;
if (itm.match(/^[$]/)) sortfn = ts_sort_currency;
if (itm.match(/^[\d\.]+$/)) sortfn = ts_sort_numeric;
}
SORT_COLUMN_INDEX = column;
var firstRow = new Array();
var newRows = new Array();
for (i=0;i<table.rows[0].length;i++) {
firstRow = table.rows[0];
}
for (j=1;j<table.rows.length;j++) {
// We don't sort section/folder rows, so we skip them here:
if ((table.rows[j].parentNode.nodeName == 'TBODY')
&& (table.rows[j].id.indexOf("section_row") == -1)) {
newRows[row_count] = table.rows[j];
row_count++;
}
}

newRows.sort(sortfn);

if (span.getAttribute("sortdir") == 'down') {
ARROW = '&nbsp;&nbsp;&uarr;';
newRows.reverse();
span.setAttribute('sortdir','up');
} else {
ARROW = '&nbsp;&nbsp;&darr;';
span.setAttribute('sortdir','down');
}

// We appendChild rows that already exist to the tbody, so it moves
them rather than creating new ones
// don't do sortbottom rows
for (i=0;i<newRows.length;i++) { if (!newRows.className ||
(newRows.className && (newRows.className.indexOf('sortbottom') ==
-1))) table.tBodies[0].appendChild(newRows);}
// do sortbottom rows only
for (i=0;i<newRows.length;i++) { if (newRows.className &&
(newRows.className.indexOf('sortbottom') != -1))
table.tBodies[0].appendChild(newRows);}

// Delete any other arrows there may be showing
var allspans = document.getElementsByTagName("span");
for (var ci=0;ci<allspans.length;ci++) {
if (allspans[ci].className == 'sortarrow') {
if (getParent(allspans[ci],"table") ==
getParent(lnk,"table")) { // in the same table as us?
allspans[ci].innerHTML = '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;';
}
}
}

span.innerHTML = ARROW;
}

function getParent(el, pTagName) {
if (el == null) return null;
else if (el.nodeType == 1 && el.tagName.toLowerCase() ==
pTagName.toLowerCase()) // Gecko bug, supposed to be uppercase
return el;
else
return getParent(el.parentNode, pTagName);
}
function ts_sort_date(a,b) {
// y2k notes: two digit years less than 50 are treated as 20XX,
greater than 50 are treated as 19XX
aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
if (aa.length == 10) {
dt1 = aa.substr(6,4)+aa.substr(3,2)+aa.substr(0,2);
} else {
yr = aa.substr(6,2);
if (parseInt(yr) < 50) { yr = '20'+yr; } else { yr = '19'+yr; }
dt1 = yr+aa.substr(3,2)+aa.substr(0,2);
}
if (bb.length == 10) {
dt2 = bb.substr(6,4)+bb.substr(3,2)+bb.substr(0,2);
} else {
yr = bb.substr(6,2);
if (parseInt(yr) < 50) { yr = '20'+yr; } else { yr = '19'+yr; }
dt2 = yr+bb.substr(3,2)+bb.substr(0,2);
}
if (dt1==dt2) return 0;
if (dt1<dt2) return -1;
return 1;
}

function ts_sort_currency(a,b) {
aa =
ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).replace(/[^0-9.]/g,'');
bb =
ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).replace(/[^0-9.]/g,'');
return parseFloat(aa) - parseFloat(bb);
}

function ts_sort_numeric(a,b) {
aa = parseFloat(ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]));
if (isNaN(aa)) aa = 0;
bb = parseFloat(ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]));
if (isNaN(bb)) bb = 0;
return aa-bb;
}

function ts_sort_caseinsensitive(a,b) {
aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).toLowerCase();
bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).toLowerCase();
if (aa==bb) return 0;
if (aa == '') return 1;
if (bb == '') return -1;
if (aa<bb) return -1;
return 1;
}

function ts_sort_sortval(a,b) {
aa = a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX].getAttribute('sortval');
bb = b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX].getAttribute('sortval');
if (aa==bb) return 0;
if (aa<bb) return -1;
return 1;
}

function ts_sort_default(a,b) {
aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
if (aa==bb) return 0;
if (aa<bb) return -1;
return 1;
}


function addEvent(elm, evType, fn, useCapture)
// addEvent and removeEvent
// cross-browser event handling for IE5+, NS6 and Mozilla
// By Scott Andrew
{
if (elm.addEventListener){
elm.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture);
return true;
} else if (elm.attachEvent){
var r = elm.attachEvent("on"+evType, fn);
return r;
} else {
alert("Handler could not be removed");
}
}

 

[Matt Williamson]

The answer is right on the authors website..
Sorting a table the first time the page is loaded
Lots of people ask, "how do I make sorttable sort the table the first time
the page is loaded?" The answer is: you don't. Sorttable is about changing
the HTML that is served from your server without a page refresh. When the
page is first served from the server, you have to incur the wait for it to
be served anyway. So, if you want the table sorted when a page is first
displayed, serve the table in sorted order. Tables often come out of a
database; get the data from the database in a sorted order with an ORDER BY
clause in your SQL.

The other thing that people say to that is: no, no, no, you've got it wrong,
I want people who have visited the page before and sorted the data to get
the data sorted that way again on their next visit, so I need sorttable to
run when the page loads. No, you don't. Any solution which involves you
running sorttable as soon as the page loads (i.e., without user input) is a
wrong solution. To do what you want, what you should do is:

1.. Hack sorttable.js so that it sets a cookie when a table is sorted,
storing which table was sorted and which column it was sorted by, and
whether that sort was ascending or descending.
2.. Change your server code that generates the HTML in the first place to
read the cookie, if it exists, and serve the data sorted in the way that the
cookie dictates.
This procedure is left as an exercise for the reader. It would be a useful
addition, but I can't add it to the library because I don't know how your
server code works, and I won't add something that fires sorttable to do
sorting as soon as the page loads. That's the wrong solution; if you're
determined to do it then I can't stop you, but you're on your own.

 

[jeffsal]

If you DON"T have an answer, DON"T reply. I read all that stuff
already. I got the ANSWER from another group which works perfectly. I
couldn't get the data in the sorted order I wanted from the database.
So the answer isn't you don't. The answer is you can if you need to. So
remember. If you DON"T have an answer, DON"T reply.

 

[Mick White]

I am using sorttable.js to sort a table which works fine which allows a
user to sort the table by clicking on the column header. Is there some
code I could add to the page (onload or something) to auto sort by the
first column without user clicking on it. Here is the sorttable.js
code.

addEvent(window, "load", sortables_init);

[snip]

If it matters to you, that table sort routine fails in Safari (A bug in
Safari, the browser always returns 0(zero) for td/thNode.cellIndex.)
However, I have an example at :
http://www.mickweb.com/football/aleague/profiles2005.html

that sorts the names by surnames (column #3) onload.
I'd be glad to help you, if it overwhelms you...

Mick

 

[Randy Webb]

(e-mail address removed) said the following on 8/11/2005 10:22 AM:

If you DON"T have an answer, DON"T reply.

If you can't quote, would you mind not posting?

I read all that stuff already.

Then you obviously did not comprehend it.

I got the ANSWER from another group which works perfectly.

Does it "work perfectly" or do you just *think* it does?

I couldn't get the data in the sorted order I wanted from the database.

Yes you could, you just didn't know how.
And to prove my point, you now have the data sorted so you *must* be
able to get it sorted.