Preamble

With DataTables you can alter the sorting characteristics of the table at initialisation time. Using the aaSorting initialisation parameter, you can get the table exactly how you want to present the information. The aaSorting parameter is an array of arrays where the first value is the column to sort on, and the second is 'asc' or 'desc' as required (it is a double array for multi-column sorting). The table below is sorted (descending) by the CSS grade. Note also that the 'Engine version' column is automatically detected as a numeric column and sorted accordingly. Finally, also note that "asSorting" has been defined for the column in question for this example. The reason for this is that DataTables uses ["asc","desc"] for sorting order by default, but we would in this case prefer "desc" to be given first priority.

Live example

Initialisation code

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#example').dataTable( {
		"aaSorting": [[ 4, "desc" ]]
	} );
} );

Other examples

Basic initialisation

• Zero configuration
• Feature enablement
• Sorting data
• Multi-column sorting
• Multiple tables
• Hidden columns
• DOM positioning
• State saving
• Alternative pagination styles
• Scrolling: Horizontal / Vertical / Both / Themed / Infinite
• Change language information (internationalisation)
• ThemeRoller themes (Smoothness)

Advanced initialisation

• Events (pre initialisation)
• Events (post initialisation)
• Column rendering
• Sorting without HTML tags
• Multiple table controls (sDom)
• Defining length menu options
• Custom toolbar (element) around table
• Row highlighting with CSS
• Column grouping through col/row spans
• Row grouping
• Row callback
• Footer callback
• Change language information from a file (internationalisation)

Data sources

• DOM
• Javascript array
• Ajax source
• Server side processing

Server-side processing

• Obtain server-side data
• Add extra HTTP variables
• Use HTTP POST
• Custom column ordering (in callback data)
• Pipelining data (reduce Ajax calls for paging)
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)

API

• Dynamically add a new row
• Individual column filtering (using "input" elements)
• Individual column filtering (using "select" elements)
• Highlight rows and columns
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• User selectable rows (single row) and delete rows
• Editable rows (with jEditable)
• Submit form with elements in table
• Index column (static number column)
• Show and hide columns dynamically
• API function use in initialisation object (callback)
• DataTables scrolling and tabs
• Regular expression filtering

Plug-ins

• Add custom API functions
• Sorting and type detection
• Custom pagination controls
• Range filtering / custom filtering
• Live DOM sorting
• Automatic HTML type detection

Please refer to the DataTables documentation for full information about its API properties and methods.