Datatable date sorting dd/mm/yyyy issue

I am using a Jquery plugin called datatables

Its fantastic, however I cannot get the dates to sort correctly according to the dd/mm/yyyy format.

I have looked at their support formats but none of these fixes seem to work.

Can anybody here help me please?

Update 2020: HTML Solution

Since HTML 5 is so much developed and almost all major browser supporting it. So now a much cleaner approach is to use HTML5 data attributes (maxx777 provided a PHP solution I am using the simple HTML). For non-numeric data as in our scenario, we can use data-sort or data-order attribute and assign a sortable value to it.

HTML

<td data-sort='YYYYMMDD'>DD/MM/YYYY</td>

Here is working HTML solution

jQuery Solution

Here is working jQuery solution.

jQuery.extend( jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
"date-uk-pre": function ( a ) {
    var ukDatea = a.split('/');
    return (ukDatea[2] + ukDatea[1] + ukDatea[0]) * 1;
},

"date-uk-asc": function ( a, b ) {
    return ((a < b) ? -1 : ((a > b) ? 1 : 0));
},

"date-uk-desc": function ( a, b ) {
    return ((a < b) ? 1 : ((a > b) ? -1 : 0));
}
} );
 

Add the above code to script and set the specific column with Date values with { "sType": "date-uk" } and others as null, see below:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').dataTable( {
        "aoColumns": [
            null,
            null,
            null,
            null,
            { "sType": "date-uk" },
            null
        ]
    });
    });

Date Sort - with a hidden element

Convert the date to the format YYYYMMDD and prepend to the actual value (DD/MM/YYYY) in the <td>, wrap it in an element, set style display:none; to the elements. Now the date sort will work as a normal sort. The same can be applied to date-time sort.

HTML

<table id="data-table">
   <tr>
     <td><span>YYYYMMDD</span>DD/MM/YYYY</td>
   </tr>
</table>

CSS

#data-table span {
    display:none; 
}

I know this is an old question and answers are old too. Recently I came across a simple and clean way of sorting dates. It can be done by HTML5 data-order attribute to <td> element.

Here's what I have done in my PHP:

<?php
$newdate = date('d M Y', $myDateTime); // Format in which I want to display
$dateOrder = date('Y-m-d', $myDateTime); // Sort Order
?>

<td data-order="<?php echo $dateOrder; ?>" >
<?php echo $newdate; ?>
</td>

Try this plugin.

As stated here you need to include Moment.js and the datatable-moment plugin, then just declare the date format you are using. The plugin will autodetect your date columns and sort it like it should be. For moment.js format explanations, check here.

Example:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $.fn.dataTable.moment('DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm');
    $('#example').DataTable();
});

This way it worked for me.

<td data-order="@item.CreatedOn.ToString("MMddyyyyHHmmss")">
	@item.CreatedOn.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm tt")
</td>

This date format in data-order attribute should be in this format which is being supported by DataTable.

If you don't want to use momentum.js or any other date formating, you can prepend a date format in milliseconds in the date value so that the sort will read according to it's millisecond. And hide the milliseconds date format.

Sample code:

var date = new Date();
var millisecond = Date.parse(date);

HTML

<td>'<span style="display: none;">' + millisecond + "</span>" + date + </td>

That's it.

Another solution: https://datatables.net/blog/2014-12-18

with 2 JavaScript libraries:

1. cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.8.4/moment.min.js
2. cdn.datatables.net/plug-ins/1.10.15/sorting/datetime-moment.js

then only this :

$(document).ready(function() {
   $.fn.dataTable.moment( 'DD/MM/YYYY' );
   $('#example').DataTable(); 
});

You can resolve this issue with php.

$mydate = strtotime($startdate);
$newformat = date('d-m-Y',$mydate);
echo '<tr>';
echo '  <td data-sort="'. $mydate .'">'.$newformat .'</td>';

While there are so many answers to the question, I think data-sort works only if sorting is required in the "YYYYMMDD" and does not work while there is Hour / Minutes. The filter doesn't work properly while data-sort is used, at least I had that problem while trying in React JS.

The best solution in my opinion is to use data-order as the value can be provided dynamically for sorting purpose and format can be different while displaying. The solution is robust and works for any date formats including "DD/MM/YYYY HH:M".

For example:

<td data-order={obj.plainDateTime}>{this.formattedDisplayDate(obj.plainDateTime) }</td>

I found this solution from here - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38079208/how-do-i-sort-by-a-hidden-column-in-datatables/38079753

I tried this and worked for me.

https://github.com/sedovsek/DataTables-EU-date-Plug-In

I used the format mode .ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"); then in my jQuery.Datatable works fine.

jQ below

oTable = $('#grid').dataTable({
    "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",
    "aoColumns": [
		{ "sType": "eu_date" },
		null
    ]
});
});

The column you have dates, you should define with the sType like the code above.

in php or js just pass an array and use orthogonal, like:

$var[0][0] = "like as u wish, 30/12/2015 or something else";
$var[0][1] = strtotime($your_date_variable);

and, in datatable...

$('#data-table-contas_pagar').dataTable({
	"columnDefs": [
		{"targets":[0],"data": [0],"render": {"_": [0],"sort": [1]}}
	]
});

Zaheer Ahmed' solution works fine if you have to deal with already uk formated date.

I had an issue with this solution because I had to manage US formated date.

I figured it out with this tiny change :

function parseDate(a) {
    var ukDatea = a.split('/');
    return (ukDatea[2] + ukDatea[1] + ukDatea[0]) * 1;
}

jQuery.extend( jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
    "date-uk-pre": function ( a ) {
        return parseDate(a);
    },
 
    "date-uk-asc": function ( a, b ) {
    	a = parseDate(a);
    	b = parseDate(b);
        return ((a < b) ? -1 : ((a > b) ? 1 : 0));
    },
 
    "date-uk-desc": function ( a, b ) {
    	a = parseDate(a);
    	b = parseDate(b);
        return ((a < b) ? 1 : ((a > b) ? -1 : 0));
    }
});

Followed by your "aoColumns" definition.

This solution is completely wrong. You can't convert a date to a number just adding each component of the date. If you try this logic for example with the following dates, you'll see it won't match correctly:

20/01/2014 = 2035 15/02/2014 = 2031

Witch date comes first, ascending? 20 of january? Not according to this logic :P

The correct way of doing the parsedate method is to convert the string to a valid datetime, and them use the getTime function to properly order the table.

var day = a.split('/')[0]
var month = a.split('/')[1]
var year = a.split('/')[2]
                
var date = new Date(month + "/" + day + "/" + year)
return date.getTime()

I wanted to point out that when using data from the server via Ajax, the solution is super simple, but may not be immediately obvious.

When returning the sort order array, Datatables will send (in the $_POST) a 2 element array that would be equivalent to:

$_POST['order'][0] =array('column'=>'SortColumnName', 'dir'=>'asc'); 
// 2nd element is either 'asc' or 'desc'

Therefore, you may display the date in any format you want; just have your server return the sorting criteria based only upon the sortColumnName.

For example, in PHP (with MySQL), I use the following:

 if (isset($_POST['order'])) {
		  switch ($_POST['order'][0]['column']) {
			   case 0:// sort by Primary Key
					$order = 'pkItemid';
					break;
			   case 1:// Sort by reference number
					$order = 'refNo';
					break;
			   case 2://Date Started
					$order = 'dOpen';
					break;
			   default :
					$order = 'pkItemid';
		  }
          $orderdir = ($_POST['order'][0]['dir'] === 'desc') ? 'desc' : 'asc';
	 }

Note, that since nothing from the $_POST is passed to $order or $orderdir, no cross-script attack is possible.

Now, just append to a MySQL query:

$sql ="SELECT pkItemid, refNo, DATE_FORMAT(dOpen,'%b %e, %Y') AS dateStarted
       FROM tblReference 
       ORDER BY $order $orderdir;";

run the query, and return just the dateStarted value to Datatables in json.

use this snippet!

$(document).ready(function() {
 $.fn.dataTable.moment = function ( format, locale ) {
    var types = $.fn.dataTable.ext.type;
 
    // Add type detection
    types.detect.unshift( function ( d ) {
        return moment( d, format, locale, true ).isValid() ?
            'moment-'+format :
            null;
    } );
 
    // Add sorting method - use an integer for the sorting
    types.order[ 'moment-'+format+'-pre' ] = function ( d ) {
        return moment( d, format, locale, true ).unix();
    };
};

$.fn.dataTable.moment('DD/MM/YYYY');

$('#example').DataTable();
});

the moment js works well for all date and time formats, add this snipper before you initialize the datatable like i've done earlier.

Also remember to load the http://momentjs.com/

I too got same problem.

I was using span with in td like 03/21/2017, by doing this, datatable treated this as string and sorting did not work.

I removed span inside td, and it got fixed. like, 03/21/2017

I used in the rest call

**Date Variable is: Created **

var call = $.ajax({
            url: "../_api/Web/Lists/GetByTitle('NewUser')/items?$filter=(Created%20ge%20datetime'"+FromDate+"')%20and%20(Created%20le%20datetime'"+ToDate+"' and Title eq '"+epf+"' )&$top=5000",
            type: "GET",
            dataType: "json",
            headers: {
                Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"
            }
       
        	});

  call.done(function (data,textStatus, jqXHR){
        $('#example').dataTable({
            "bDestroy": true,
            "bProcessing": true,
            "aaData": data.d.results,
			"aLengthMenu" : [
			 [50,100],
			 [50,100]
			],
			 dom: 'Bfrtip',
	        buttons: [
	            'copy', 'csv', 'excel'
	        ],

            "aoColumnDefs": [{ "bVisible": false  }],
            "aoColumns": [
				{ "mData": "ID" },
                { "mData": "Title" },
                { "mData": "EmployeeName" },
				{ "mData": "Department1" },
                { "mData": "ServicingAt" },
                { "mData": "TestField" }, 
                { "mData": "BranchCode" }, 	 
                { "mData": "Created" ,"render": function (data, type, row) {
        data = moment(data).format('DD MMM YYYY');
        return data;
    }

The most Easy way to Sort out this problem

Just modify your design little bit like this

//Add this data order attribute to td
<td data-order="@item.CreatedOn.ToUnixTimeStamp()">
                                    @item.CreatedOn
                                </td>
                                
                                
               
               Add create this Date Time helper function
// #region Region 
 public static long ToUnixTimeStamp(this DateTime dateTime) {
 TimeSpan timeSpan = (dateTime - new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0));
     return (long)timeSpan.TotalSeconds;
     } 
     #endregion

What seems to work for me was

push the full datetime object fetched with a select query from my db in a dataset wich will be draw by datatable format "2018-01-05 08:45:56"

then

    $('#Table').DataTable({
        data: dataset,
        deferRender: 200,
        destroy: true,
        scrollY: false,
        scrollCollapse: true,
        scroller: true,
        "order": [[2, "desc"]],
        'columnDefs': [
            {
                'targets': 2,
                'createdCell':  function (td, cellData, rowData, row, col) {                        
                    var datestamp = new Date(cellData);
                    $(td).html(datestamp.getUTCDate() + '-' + (datestamp.getMonth()+1) + '-' + datestamp.getFullYear());
                }
            }
        ],
        "initComplete": function(settings, json) {
            $($.fn.dataTable.tables(true)).DataTable()
                .columns.adjust();               
        }
    });

Rows get sorted right , then I get a html I want in the row

As I found the easiest way for sorting in this case is by adding 'aaSorting' option in the JS.

For example:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#contacts-table').dataTable({
        "aaSorting": [0, 'desc']
});

The problem here is that this example will sort entries from 1-st column like STRING but not like dates. If source code allows you to change date format from dd/mm/yyyy to yyyy/mm/dd "aaSorting" will work properly for you.

Use the data-order attribute on the <td> tag like so (Ruby Example):

    <td data order='<%=rentroll.decorate.date%>'><%=rentroll.decorate.date%></td>

Your decorator function here would be:

    def date
    object.date&.strftime("%d/%m/%Y")
    end

If you get your dates from a database and do a for loop for each row and append it to a string to use in javascript to automagically populate datatables, it will need to look like this. Note that when using the hidden span trick, you need to account for the single digit numbers of the date like if its the 6th hour, you need to add a zero before it otherwise the span trick doesn't work in the sorting.. Example of code:

 DateTime getDate2 = Convert.ToDateTime(row["date"]);
 var hour = getDate2.Hour.ToString();
 if (hour.Length == 1)
 {
 hour = "0" + hour;
 }
 var minutes = getDate2.Minute.ToString();
 if (minutes.Length == 1)
 {
 minutes = "0" + minutes;
 }
 var year = getDate2.Year.ToString();
 var month = getDate2.Month.ToString();
 if (month.Length == 1)
 {
 month = "0" + month;
 }
 var day = getDate2.Day.ToString();
 if (day.Length == 1)
 {
 day = "0" + day;
 }
 var dateForSorting = year + month + day + hour + minutes; 
 dataFromDatabase.Append("<span style=\u0022display:none;\u0022>" + dateForSorting +
 </span>");

Try this:

"aoColumns": [
        null,
        null,
        null,
        null,
        {"sType": "date"},  //  "sType": "date" TO SPECIFY SORTING IS APPLICABLE ON DATE
        null
      ]

To the column you want ordering keep "sType": "date-uk" for example:-"data": "OrderDate", "sType": "date-uk" After the completion of Datatable script in ajax keep the below code

 jQuery.extend(jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
            "date-uk-pre": function (a) {
                var ukDatea = a.split('/');
                return (ukDatea[2] + ukDatea[1] + ukDatea[0]) * 1;
            },

            "date-uk-asc": function (a, b) {
                return ((a < b) ? -1 : ((a > b) ? 1 : 0));
            },

            "date-uk-desc": function (a, b) {
                return ((a < b) ? 1 : ((a > b) ? -1 : 0));
            }
        });

Then You will get date as 22-10-2018 in this format

Problem source is datetime format.

Wrong samples: "MM-dd-yyyy H:mm","MM-dd-yyyy"

Correct sample: "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm"

The simpliest way is to add a hidden timestamp before the date in every TD tag of the column, for example:

<td class="sorting_1">
    <span class="d-none">1547022615</span>09/01/2019  09:30
</td>

With the default string ordering, a timestamp would order the column the way you want and it will not be shown when rendered in the browser.

Anyone struggling with UTC formats or others can read this

Suppose you have date in this format

> Tue Oct 15 2019 08:41:35 GMT+0000 (UTC)

First we can convert it to millisecond using moment

For Example, in my case i was using HandleBar.js. So i created a Helper function to make it simpler

hbs.registerHelper('dateformat', function (datetime) {
return moment(datetime).valueOf(); })

or else

just convert it this way

moment("Tue Oct 15 2019 08:41:35 GMT+0000 (UTC)").valueOf();

once done just pass these values to your table

Now the trick here is to pass them both and hide the one in milliseconds and show the one in UTC format

<td >
<span class="hideThisDate">{{DATA IN MILLISECONDS}}</span> 
{{YOUR DATE IN NORMAL FORMAT}}</td>

Now just simply hide the one in milliseconds through CSS

.hideThisDate {
 display:none;
 }

And you should be good to go!

I got the same issue while working with Doctrine. My datas was correctly sorted from the database with orderBy('p.updatedAt', 'DESC'), but when DataTable process them the final result was completly different.

The esiest way I found to resolve this is to add a hidden column timestamp in my table then order by this column when ordering by date. Full functional example here.

<table>
  <thead>
    <th>Some column<th>
    <th>Visible date<th>
    <th>Timestamp<th>
  </thead>

  <tbody>
    <td>Example with Twig</td>
    <td>{{ product.updatedAt ? time_diff(product.updatedAt) : '' }}</td>
    <td>{{ product.updatedAt ? product.updatedAt.getTimestamp() : '' }}</td>
  </tbody>
</table>

$(document).ready(function() {
  let dateColumn = 1;
  let timestampColumn = 2;
  let currentColumn = timestampColumn;
  let currentDirection = "desc";

  let table = $("#dataTable").DataTable({
    "order": [
        [ timestampColumn, "desc" ],
        // If you want to keep the default order from database
        // just set "order": [] so DataTable wont define other order
    ],
    "columnDefs": [
      {
        "targets": [ timestampColumn ],
        "visible": false, // Hide the timestamp column
      },
    ]
  });

  /**
   * @var e: Events
   * @var settings: DataTable settings
   * @var ordArr: Current order used by DataTable
   *      example: [{"src":8,"col":8,"dir":"asc","index":0,"type":"string"}]
   */
  table.on("order.dt", function (e, settings, ordArr) {
    currentColumn = ordArr[0].col;
    currentDirection = ordArr[0].dir;

    if(currentColumn === dateColumn) {
      table.order([timestampColumn, currentDirection]).draw();

      // Without this line you'll get an unexpected behaviour
      table.order([dateColumn, currentDirection]); 
    }
  })
});