Sorting Empty String In DataTables

http://stackoverflow.com/q/25944854/1144203

by Plippie Plop

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//cdn.datatables.net/1.10.2/css/jquery.dataTables.css">
<script src="//cdn.datatables.net/1.10.2/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>
<table id="example" class="display" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Position</th>
            <th>Office</th>
            <th>Age</th>
            <th>Start date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>Tiger Nixon</td>
            <td>System Architect</td>
            <td>Edinburgh</td>
            <td>61</td>
            <td>2011/04/25</td>
            <td>$320,800</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Garrett Winters</td>
            <td>Accountant</td>
            <td>Tokyo</td>
            <td>63</td>
            <td>2011/07/25</td>
            <td>$170,750</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Ashton Cox</td>
            <td>Junior Technical Author</td>
            <td>San Francisco</td>
            <td></td>
            <td>2009/01/12</td>
            <td>$86,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Cedric Kelly</td>
            <td>Senior Javascript Developer</td>
            <td>Edinburgh</td>
            <td>22</td>
            <td>2012/03/29</td>
            <td>$433,060</td>
        </tr>
        
        <tr>
            <td></td>
            <td>Junior Technical Author</td>
            <td>San Francisco</td>
            <td></td>
            <td>2009/01/12</td>
            <td>$86,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td></td>
            <td>Senior Javascript Developer</td>
            <td>Edinburgh</td>
            <td></td>
            <td>2012/03/29</td>
            <td>$433,060</td>
        </tr>
        
    </tbody>
</table>

JavaScript

jQuery.extend( jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
    "non-empty-string-asc": function (str1, str2) {
        if(str1 == "")
            return 1;
        if(str2 == "")
            return -1;
        return ((str1 < str2) ? -1 : ((str1 > str2) ? 1 : 0));
    },
 
    "non-empty-string-desc": function (str1, str2) {
        if(str1 == "")
            return 1;
        if(str2 == "")
            return -1;
        return ((str1 < str2) ? 1 : ((str1 > str2) ? -1 : 0));
    }
} );


$('#example').dataTable({
    columnDefs: [
       {type: 'non-empty-string', targets: 0},
        {type: 'non-empty-string', targets: 3}// define 'name' column as non-empty-string type
    ]
});


jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort['NumericOrBlank-asc'] = function (x, y) {
		var retVal;
		if (y = parseFloat($.trim(y).replace(/,/g, ''))) {
				x = (x = parseFloat($.trim(x).replace(/,/g, ''))) ? x : 0;
				if (x === y) retVal = 0;
				else retVal = (x > y) ? 1 : -1;
		} else {
				retVal = -1;
		}
		return retVal;
};
jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort['NumericOrBlank-desc'] = function (y, x) {
		var retVal;
		x = (x = parseFloat($.trim(x).replace(/,/g, ''))) ? x : 0;
		y = (y = parseFloat($.trim(y).replace(/,/g, ''))) ? y : 0;
		if (x === y) retVal = 0;
		else retVal = (x > y) ? 1 : -1;
		return retVal;
};