DataTables example Multi-column ordering

DataTables allows ordering by multiple columns at the same time, which can be activated in a number of different ways:

  • User shift click on a column (added the clicked column as a secondary, tertiary etc ordering column).
  • On a per-column basis (i.e. order by a specific column and then a secondary column if the data in the first column is identical), through the columns.orderData option.
  • Using the columns.orderData option to specify a multiple column order by default (for example [ 0, 1 ]).
  • Through the order() API method.

Note that, the ability for the user to shift click to order multiple columns can be disabled through the orderMulti option.

The example below shows the first column having a secondary order applied to the second column in the table, vice-versa for the second column being tied directly to the first and the salary column to the first name column.

First name Last name Position Office Salary
Tiger Nixon System Architect Edinburgh $320,800
Garrett Winters Accountant Tokyo $170,750
Ashton Cox Junior Technical Author San Francisco $86,000
Cedric Kelly Senior Javascript Developer Edinburgh $433,060
Airi Satou Accountant Tokyo $162,700
Brielle Williamson Integration Specialist New York $372,000
Herrod Chandler Sales Assistant San Francisco $137,500
Rhona Davidson Integration Specialist Tokyo $327,900
Colleen Hurst Javascript Developer San Francisco $205,500
Sonya Frost Software Engineer Edinburgh $103,600
Jena Gaines Office Manager London $90,560
Quinn Flynn Support Lead Edinburgh $342,000
Charde Marshall Regional Director San Francisco $470,600
Haley Kennedy Senior Marketing Designer London $313,500
Tatyana Fitzpatrick Regional Director London $385,750
Michael Silva Marketing Designer London $198,500
Paul Byrd Chief Financial Officer (CFO) New York $725,000
Gloria Little Systems Administrator New York $237,500
Bradley Greer Software Engineer London $132,000
Dai Rios Personnel Lead Edinburgh $217,500
Jenette Caldwell Development Lead New York $345,000
Yuri Berry Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) New York $675,000
Caesar Vance Pre-Sales Support New York $106,450
Doris Wilder Sales Assistant Sidney $85,600
Angelica Ramos Chief Executive Officer (CEO) London $1,200,000
Gavin Joyce Developer Edinburgh $92,575
Jennifer Chang Regional Director Singapore $357,650
Brenden Wagner Software Engineer San Francisco $206,850
Fiona Green Chief Operating Officer (COO) San Francisco $850,000
Shou Itou Regional Marketing Tokyo $163,000
Michelle House Integration Specialist Sidney $95,400
Suki Burks Developer London $114,500
Prescott Bartlett Technical Author London $145,000
Gavin Cortez Team Leader San Francisco $235,500
Martena Mccray Post-Sales support Edinburgh $324,050
Unity Butler Marketing Designer San Francisco $85,675
Howard Hatfield Office Manager San Francisco $164,500
Hope Fuentes Secretary San Francisco $109,850
Vivian Harrell Financial Controller San Francisco $452,500
Timothy Mooney Office Manager London $136,200
Jackson Bradshaw Director New York $645,750
Olivia Liang Support Engineer Singapore $234,500
Bruno Nash Software Engineer London $163,500
Sakura Yamamoto Support Engineer Tokyo $139,575
Thor Walton Developer New York $98,540
Finn Camacho Support Engineer San Francisco $87,500
Serge Baldwin Data Coordinator Singapore $138,575
Zenaida Frank Software Engineer New York $125,250
Zorita Serrano Software Engineer San Francisco $115,000
Jennifer Acosta Junior Javascript Developer Edinburgh $75,650
Cara Stevens Sales Assistant New York $145,600
Hermione Butler Regional Director London $356,250
Lael Greer Systems Administrator London $103,500
Jonas Alexander Developer San Francisco $86,500
Shad Decker Regional Director Edinburgh $183,000
Michael Bruce Javascript Developer Singapore $183,000
Donna Snider Customer Support New York $112,000

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

$(document).ready(function() { $('#example').DataTable( { columnDefs: [ { targets: [ 0 ], orderData: [ 0, 1 ] }, { targets: [ 1 ], orderData: [ 1, 0 ] }, { targets: [ 4 ], orderData: [ 4, 0 ] } ] } ); } );

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.