I'm using the JQuery tablesorter plugin. The table has a column that shows dates in the format 05 Mar 2012. The tablesorter plugin seems to treat this column as text, because it sorts it in the order

• 05 Mar 2012
• 06 Jan 2012
• 07 Dec 2012

How can I sort these dates in chronological order instead?

I'm using the JQuery tablesorter plugin. The table has a column that shows dates in the format 05 Mar 2012. The tablesorter plugin seems to treat this column as text, because it sorts it in the order

• 05 Mar 2012
• 06 Jan 2012
• 07 Dec 2012

How can I sort these dates in chronological order instead?

• javascript
• jquery
• date
• tablesorter

4 Answers 4

Parse the date string to a Date, then convert it to milliseconds. Let tablesorter sort the column as numeric.

$.tablesorter.addParser({ 
    id: 'my_date_column', 
    is: function(s) { 
        // return false so this parser is not auto detected 
        return false; 
    }, 
    format: function(s) { 
        var timeInMillis = new Date.parse(s);
        return timeInMillis;         
    }, 
    // set type, either numeric or text 
    type: 'numeric' 
}); 

$(function() { 
    $("table").tablesorter({ 
        headers: { 
            6: {       // Change this to your column position
                sorter:'my_date_column' 
            } 
        } 
    }); 
});

If you have trouble with Date.parse, see my answer to this question.

You can also add a hidden span tag before your date in numerical format (yyyymmdd). This text will e first and be used for sorting but it will be hidden from sight and only show the format you want.

    <td><span style="display:none">20130923</span>23rd September 2013</td>

You will need to use addParser method and create a parser that converts your string to date object.

follow example on plugin site https://mottie.github.io/tablesorter/docs/example-parsers.html

If need a date parser:

http://www.datejs./

EDIT: your dates convert easily in format shown:

 console.log(new Date('05 Mar 2012'))//  logs proper date object

Haven't used tablesorter in a while but I seem to remember having a similar issue with UK dates.

You can add a dateformat parameter to the tablesorter plugin with your custom dateformat.

dateFormat: 'dd MMM yyyy'