How to get jQuery Tablesorter to sort descending by default?

Question

I can't figure this out. This question was also asked here http://www.nabble.com/TableSorter-plugin---default-column-sort-DESC-instead--How--to25180761s27240.html#a25180761 with no response.

I've tried

    $.tablesorter.defaults.sortInitialOrder = 'desc';

and altering the jquery.tablesorter.js file to default to 'desc' but it doesn't work. When I click on the column headers, the first sort is still ascending so the user has to click twice to descend the values.

How can I get Tablesorter to sort by descending by default?

Answer 1

Looks like a bug in the tablesorter code, or I'm misunderstanding what the sortInitialOrder parameter is supposed to do. At line 536 it sets the sorter order by looking at the number of times the column has been sorted and taking the value mod 2. It should also take into account the value of sortInitialOrder.

Change line 536 from

this.order = this.count++ % 2;

to

this.order = this.count++ == 0 ? this.order : (1 - this.order);

And add after this line (so that the first click on a different column gives you the default)

$headers.not($cell).each( function() {
    this.count = 0;
});

and change line 421 from

o.count = s[1];

to

o.order = o.count = s[1];

so that the initial order is overridden if a sortList is applied.

Then you can use the sortInitialOrder parameter to tablesorter to set up a default first sort order for the column. Any ordering provided in the sortList will override the sortInitialOrder provided for the entire table.

Note that this applies to Tablesorter 2.0.

Answer 2

Try the latest version from the tablesorter site - this seems to be fixed somewhere between version 2.0.3 and 2.0.5.

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() 
    { 
        $("#theTable").tablesorter({ 
            sortInitialOrder: 'desc',
            sortList: [[3,1]] // etc.

    }); 
    } 
); 
</script>

...that worked with the latest version of tablesorter, but didn't with the previous one I had. Hope it helps!

Answer 3

Simply use this, second item in array is sort order (0 = ascending, 1 = descending):

.tablesorter({ sortList: [[0, 1]] });