DataTables

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.datatables.net/r/dt/dt-1.10.9/datatables.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.datatables.net/r/dt/dt-1.10.9/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>
    <tfoot>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Position</th>
            <th>Office</th>
            <th>Age</th>
            <th>Start date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
    </tfoot>
    <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>66</td>
            <td>2009/01/12</td>
            <td>$86,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Bradley Greer</td>
            <td>Software Engineer</td>
            <td>London</td>
            <td>41</td>
            <td>2012/10/13</td>
            <td>$132,000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Dai Rios</td>
            <td>Personnel Lead</td>
            <td>Edinburgh</td>
            <td>35</td>
            <td>2012/09/26</td>
            <td>$217,500</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Jenette Caldwell</td>
            <td>Development Lead</td>
            <td>New York</td>
            <td>30</td>
            <td>2011/09/03</td>
            <td>$345,000</td>
        </tr>
       ...

JavaScript

$.extend($.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
    "date-custom-pre": function(a){
        function splitDate(str){
            if(str.indexOf("-") >= 0){ str = str.split('-'); }
            else if(str.indexOf("/") >= 0){ str = str.split('/'); }
            else if(str.indexOf(".") >= 0){ str = str.split('.'); }
            else{ str='';}
            return str;
        }

        // Needs to pull attribute  "data-format" from the table 
       // I think this is the issue but I am unsure about the rest as well.
        // var format= $(this).parent().parent().attr('data-format');
        var format = 'Y/m/d';
                        
        // Collect date from field
        var p = splitDate(a);
        var result ='10000000000000';
        if(p.length==3){
            switch(format){
                case 'm-d-Y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'm-d-y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'm/d/Y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'm/d/y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'm.d.Y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'm.d.y':result = p[2]+p[0]+p[1]; break;
                case 'Y-m-d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'y-m-d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'Y/m/d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'y/m/d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'Y.m.d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'y.m.d':result = p[0]+p[1]+p[2]; break;
                case 'd-m-Y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
                case 'd-m-y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
                case 'd/m/Y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
                case 'd/m/y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
                case 'd.m.Y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
                case 'd.m.y':result = p[2]+p[1]+p[0]; break;
            }
        }
        
        return result;
    }
});

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