This is not a new trick, sorting a table using the DOM. However,
this mini-library has two nice attributes; the first is,
unsurprisingly, that it follows my principles of
unobtrusive DHTML, as you'll see below. The second is that, as
mentioned above, it knows how to sort a variety of different data
types, and it works them out for itself -- you don't have to tell
it.
Now, how to use it. To make a table of your
choice sortable, there are three steps:
- Download the Javascript library
- Include the Javascript library, by
putting a link to it in the HEAD of your page, like so:
<script src="sorttable.js"></script>
- Mark your table as a sortable one by giving it a class of
"sortable":
<table class="sortable">
Note that the library's JavaScript file is called
sorttable (two Ts), but the class you add to the table is
sortable (one T).
And that's all you need. Your table will now have column sorting
available by clicking the headers.
