Sorting HTML table with JavaScript

I'm after a table sorting solution (in JavaScript) but I can't seem to find a suitable one yet. I just need it to sort each column alphabetically. It doesn't need to ignore any code or any numbers or to work with currency. Just a click on the column header switches it from sorted a-z/z-a.

Does anyone know of a really simple solution like this?

Just revisiting an old solution, I thought I'd give it a facelift for it's ~5 year anniversary!

• Plain Javascript (ES6)
• Does alpha and numeric sorting - ascending and descending
• Works in Chrome, Firefox, Safari (and IE11, see below)

Quick explanation

1. add a click event to all header (th) cells...
2. for the current table, find all rows (except the first)...
3. sort the rows, based on the value of the clicked column...
4. insert the rows back into the table, in the new order.

const getCellValue = (tr, idx) => tr.children[idx].innerText || tr.children[idx].textContent;

const comparer = (idx, asc) => (a, b) => ((v1, v2) => 
    v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2) ? v1 - v2 : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2)
    )(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));

// do the work...
document.querySelectorAll('th').forEach(th => th.addEventListener('click', (() => {
    const table = th.closest('table');
    Array.from(table.querySelectorAll('tr:nth-child(n+2)'))
        .sort(comparer(Array.from(th.parentNode.children).indexOf(th), this.asc = !this.asc))
        .forEach(tr => table.appendChild(tr) );
})));

table, th, td {
    border: 1px solid black;
}
th {
    cursor: pointer;
}

<table>
    <tr><th>Country</th><th>Date</th><th>Size</th></tr>
    <tr><td>France</td><td>2001-01-01</td><td><i>25</i></td></tr>
    <tr><td><a href=#>spain</a></td><td><i>2005-05-05</i></td><td></td></tr>
    <tr><td><b>Lebanon</b></td><td><a href=#>2002-02-02</a></td><td><b>-17</b></td></tr>
    <tr><td><i>Argentina</i></td><td>2005-04-04</td><td><a href=#>100</a></td></tr>
    <tr><td>USA</td><td></td><td>-6</td></tr>
</table>

---

IE11 Support (non-ES6)

If you want to support IE11, you'll need to ditch the ES6 syntax and use alternatives to Array.from and Element.closest.

i.e.

var getCellValue = function(tr, idx){ return tr.children[idx].innerText || tr.children[idx].textContent; }

var comparer = function(idx, asc) { return function(a, b) { return function(v1, v2) {
        return v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2) ? v1 - v2 : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2);
    }(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));
}};

// do the work...
Array.prototype.slice.call(document.querySelectorAll('th')).forEach(function(th) { th.addEventListener('click', function() {
        var table = th.parentNode
        while(table.tagName.toUpperCase() != 'TABLE') table = table.parentNode;
        Array.prototype.slice.call(table.querySelectorAll('tr:nth-child(n+2)'))
            .sort(comparer(Array.prototype.slice.call(th.parentNode.children).indexOf(th), this.asc = !this.asc))
            .forEach(function(tr) { table.appendChild(tr) });
    })
});

Comparer function breakdown

For the sake of brevity, I compacted the comparer() function. It's a little complex/hard to read, so here it is again exploded/formatted/commented.

// Returns a function responsible for sorting a specific column index 
// (idx = columnIndex, asc = ascending order?).
var comparer = function(idx, asc) { 

    // This is used by the array.sort() function...
    return function(a, b) { 

        // This is a transient function, that is called straight away. 
        // It allows passing in different order of args, based on 
        // the ascending/descending order.
        return function(v1, v2) {

            // sort based on a numeric or localeCompare, based on type...
            return (v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2)) 
                ? v1 - v2 
                : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2);
        }(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));
    }
};

I wrote up some code that will sort a table by a row, assuming only one <tbody> and cells don't have a colspan.

function sortTable(table, col, reverse) {
    var tb = table.tBodies[0], // use `<tbody>` to ignore `<thead>` and `<tfoot>` rows
        tr = Array.prototype.slice.call(tb.rows, 0), // put rows into array
        i;
    reverse = -((+reverse) || -1);
    tr = tr.sort(function (a, b) { // sort rows
        return reverse // `-1 *` if want opposite order
            * (a.cells[col].textContent.trim() // using `.textContent.trim()` for test
                .localeCompare(b.cells[col].textContent.trim())
               );
    });
    for(i = 0; i < tr.length; ++i) tb.appendChild(tr[i]); // append each row in order
}
// sortTable(tableNode, columId, false);

If you don't want to make the assumptions above, you'd need to consider how you want to behave in each circumstance. (e.g. put everything into one <tbody> or add up all the preceeding colspan values, etc.)

You could then attach this to each of your tables, e.g. assuming titles are in <thead>

function makeSortable(table) {
    var th = table.tHead, i;
    th && (th = th.rows[0]) && (th = th.cells);
    if (th) i = th.length;
    else return; // if no `<thead>` then do nothing
    while (--i >= 0) (function (i) {
        var dir = 1;
        th[i].addEventListener('click', function () {sortTable(table, i, (dir = 1 - dir))});
    }(i));
}

function makeAllSortable(parent) {
    parent = parent || document.body;
    var t = parent.getElementsByTagName('table'), i = t.length;
    while (--i >= 0) makeSortable(t[i]);
}

and then invoking makeAllSortable onload.

---

Example fiddle of it working on a table.

Nick Grealy's accepted answer is great but acts a bit quirky if your rows are inside a <tbody> tag (the first row isn't ever sorted and after sorting rows end up outside of the tbody tag, possibly losing formatting).

This is a simple fix, however:

Just change:

document.querySelectorAll('th').forEach(th => th.addEventListener('click', (() => {
  const table = th.closest('table');
  Array.from(table.querySelectorAll('tr:nth-child(n+2)'))
    .sort(comparer(Array.from(th.parentNode.children).indexOf(th), this.asc = !this.asc))
    .forEach(tr => table.appendChild(tr) );

to:

document.querySelectorAll('th').forEach(th => th.addEventListener('click', (() => {
  const table = th.closest('table');
  const tbody = table.querySelector('tbody');
  Array.from(tbody.querySelectorAll('tr'))
    .sort(comparer(Array.from(th.parentNode.children).indexOf(th), this.asc = !this.asc))
    .forEach(tr => tbody.appendChild(tr) );

It does WAY more than "just sorting", but dataTables.net does what you need. I use it daily and is well supported and VERY fast (does require jQuery)

http://datatables.net/

> DataTables is a plug-in for the jQuery Javascript library. It is a highly flexible tool, based upon the foundations of progressive enhancement, which will add advanced interaction controls to any HTML table.

Google Visualizations is another option, but requires a bit more setup that dataTables, but does NOT require any particular framework/library (other than google.visualizations):

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?type=visualization#table

And there are other options to... especially if you're using one of the other JS frameworks. Dojo, Prototype, etc all have usable "table enhancement" plugins that provide at minimum table sorting functionality. Many provide more, but I'll restate...I've yet to come across one as powerful and as FAST as datatables.net.

The best way I know to sort HTML table with javascript is with the following function.

Just pass to it the id of the table you'd like to sort and the column number on the row. it assumes that the column you are sorting is numeric or has numbers in it and will do regex replace to get the number itself (great for currencies and other numbers with symbols in it).

function sortTable(table_id, sortColumn){
    var tableData = document.getElementById(table_id).getElementsByTagName('tbody').item(0);
    var rowData = tableData.getElementsByTagName('tr');            
    for(var i = 0; i < rowData.length - 1; i++){
        for(var j = 0; j < rowData.length - (i + 1); j++){
            if(Number(rowData.item(j).getElementsByTagName('td').item(sortColumn).innerHTML.replace(/[^0-9\.]+/g, "")) < Number(rowData.item(j+1).getElementsByTagName('td').item(sortColumn).innerHTML.replace(/[^0-9\.]+/g, ""))){
    		    tableData.insertBefore(rowData.item(j+1),rowData.item(j));
		    }
        }
    }
}

Using example:

$(function(){
    // pass the id and the <td> place you want to sort by (td counts from 0)
    sortTable('table_id', 3);
});

You could deal with a json array and the sort function. It is a pretty easy maintanable structure to manipulate (ex: sorting).

Untested, but here's the idea. That would support multiple ordering and sequential ordering if you pass in a array in which you put the columns in the order they should be ordered by.

var DATA_TABLE = {
    {name: 'George', lastname: 'Blarr', age:45},
    {name: 'Bob', lastname: 'Arr', age: 20}
    //...
};

function sortDataTable(arrayColNames, asc) { // if not asc, desc
    for (var i=0;i<arrayColNames.length;i++) {
        var columnName = arrayColNames[i];
        DATA_TABLE = DATA_TABLE.sort(function(a,b){
            if (asc) {
                return (a[columnName] > b[columnName]) ? 1 : -1;
            } else {
                return (a[columnName] < b[columnName]) ? 1 : -1;
            }
        });
    }
}

function updateHTMLTable() {
    // update innerHTML / textContent according to DATA_TABLE
    // Note: textContent for firefox, innerHTML for others
}

Now let's imagine you need to order by lastname, then name, and finally by age.

var orderAsc = true;
sortDataTable(['lastname', 'name', 'age'], orderAsc);

It should result in something like :

{name: 'Jack', lastname: 'Ahrl', age: 20},
{name: 'Jack', lastname: 'Ahrl', age: 22},
//...

Here is a complete example using pure JavaScript. The algorithm used for sorting is basically BubbleSort. Here is a Fiddle.

   <!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="de">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">

<script type="text/javascript">
	function sort(ascending, columnClassName, tableId) {
		var tbody = document.getElementById(tableId).getElementsByTagName(
				"tbody")[0];
		var rows = tbody.getElementsByTagName("tr");

		var unsorted = true;

		while (unsorted) {
			unsorted = false

			for (var r = 0; r < rows.length - 1; r++) {
				var row = rows[r];
				var nextRow = rows[r + 1];

				var value = row.getElementsByClassName(columnClassName)[0].innerHTML;
				var nextValue = nextRow.getElementsByClassName(columnClassName)[0].innerHTML;

				value = value.replace(',', '.'); // in case a comma is used in float number
				nextValue = nextValue.replace(',', '.');

				if (!isNaN(value)) {
					value = parseFloat(value);
					nextValue = parseFloat(nextValue);
				}

				if (ascending ? value > nextValue : value < nextValue) {
					tbody.insertBefore(nextRow, row);
					unsorted = true;
				}
			}
		}
	};
</script>
</head>
<body>
	<table id="content-table">
		<thead>
			<tr>
				<th class="id">ID <a
					href="javascript:sort(true, 'id', 'content-table');">asc</a> <a
					href="javascript:sort(false, 'id', 'content-table');">des</a>
				</th>
				<th class="country">Country <a
					href="javascript:sort(true, 'country', 'content-table');">asc</a> <a
					href="javascript:sort(false, 'country', 'content-table');">des</a>
				</th>
				<th class="some-fact">Some fact <a
					href="javascript:sort(true, 'some-fact', 'content-table');">asc</a>
					<a href="javascript:sort(false, 'some-fact', 'content-table');">des</a>
				<th>
			</tr>
		</thead>
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td class="id">001</td>
				<td class="country">Germany</td>
				<td class="some-fact">16.405</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td class="id">002</td>
				<td class="country">France</td>
				<td class="some-fact">10.625</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td class="id">003</td>
				<td class="country">UK</td>
				<td class="some-fact">15.04</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td class="id">004</td>
				<td class="country">China</td>
				<td class="some-fact">13.536</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</body>
</html>

You can also check out the source from here: https://github.com/wmentzel/table-sort

Sorting table rows by cell.

1. Little simpler and has some features.

2. Distinguish 'number' and 'string' on sorting

3. Add toggle to sort by ASC, DESC

   var index; // cell index var toggleBool; // sorting asc, desc function sorting(tbody, index){ this.index = index; if(toggleBool){ toggleBool = false; }else{ toggleBool = true; }

   var datas= new Array();
   var tbodyLength = tbody.rows.length;
   for(var i=0; i<tbodyLength; i++){
   	datas[i] = tbody.rows[i];
   }
   
   // sort by cell[index] 
   datas.sort(compareCells);
   for(var i=0; i<tbody.rows.length; i++){
   	// rearrange table rows by sorted rows
   	tbody.appendChild(datas[i]);
   }	
   

   }

   function compareCells(a,b) { var aVal = a.cells[index].innerText; var bVal = b.cells[index].innerText;

   aVal = aVal.replace(/\,/g, '');
   bVal = bVal.replace(/\,/g, '');
   
   if(toggleBool){
   	var temp = aVal;
   	aVal = bVal;
   	bVal = temp;
   } 
   
   if(aVal.match(/^[0-9]+$/) && bVal.match(/^[0-9]+$/)){
   	return parseFloat(aVal) - parseFloat(bVal);
   }
   else{
   	  if (aVal < bVal){
   		  return -1; 
   	  }else if (aVal > bVal){
   		    return 1; 
   	  }else{
   		  return 0;		  
   	  }			
   }
   

   }

below is html sample

			<table summary="Pioneer">

				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 0)">No.</th>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 1)">Name</th>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 2)">Belong</th>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 3)">Current Networth</th>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 4)">BirthDay</th>
						<th scope="col"  onclick="sorting(tbody01, 5)">Just Number</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>

				<tbody id="tbody01">
					<tr>
						<td>1</td>
						<td>Gwanshic Yi</td>
						<td>Gwanshic Home</td>
						<td>120000</td>
						<td>1982-03-20</td>
						<td>124,124,523</td>
					</tr>
					<tr>
						<td>2</td>
						<td>Steve Jobs</td>
						<td>Apple</td>
						<td>19000000000</td>
						<td>1955-02-24</td>
						<td>194,523</td>
					</tr>
					<tr>
						<td>3</td>
						<td>Bill Gates</td>
						<td>MicroSoft</td>
						<td>84300000000</td>
						<td>1955-10-28</td>
						<td>1,524,124,523</td>
					</tr>
					<tr>
						<td>4</td>
						<td>Larry Page</td>
						<td>Google</td>
						<td>39100000000</td>
						<td>1973-03-26</td>
						<td>11,124,523</td>
					</tr>
				</tbody>
			</table>

Table Sorting with :hover arrows effect. Simply add the class .order to the <th> element of each column to be ordered

function table_sort() {
  const styleSheet = document.createElement('style')
  styleSheet.innerHTML = `
        .order-inactive span {
            visibility:hidden;
        }
        .order-inactive:hover span {
            visibility:visible;
        }
        .order-active span {
            visibility: visible;
        }
    `
  document.head.appendChild(styleSheet)

  document.querySelectorAll('th.order').forEach(th_elem => {
    let asc = true
    const span_elem = document.createElement('span')
    span_elem.style = "font-size:0.8rem; margin-left:0.5rem"
    span_elem.innerHTML = "▼"
    th_elem.appendChild(span_elem)
    th_elem.classList.add('order-inactive')

    const index = Array.from(th_elem.parentNode.children).indexOf(th_elem)
    th_elem.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
      document.querySelectorAll('th.order').forEach(elem => {
        elem.classList.remove('order-active')
        elem.classList.add('order-inactive')
      })
      th_elem.classList.remove('order-inactive')
      th_elem.classList.add('order-active')

      if (!asc) {
        th_elem.querySelector('span').innerHTML = '▲'
      } else {
        th_elem.querySelector('span').innerHTML = '▼'
      }
      const arr = Array.from(th_elem.closest("table").querySelectorAll('tbody tr'))
      arr.sort((a, b) => {
        const a_val = a.children[index].innerText
        const b_val = b.children[index].innerText
        return (asc) ? a_val.localeCompare(b_val) : b_val.localeCompare(a_val)
      })
      arr.forEach(elem => {
        th_elem.closest("table").querySelector("tbody").appendChild(elem)
      })
      asc = !asc
    })
  })
}

table_sort()

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th class="order">Country</th>
      <th class="order">Date</th>
      <th class="order">Size</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>France</td>
      <td>2001-01-01</td>
      <td><i>25</i></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><a href=#>spain</a></td>
      <td><i>2005-05-05</i></td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><b>Lebanon</b></td>
      <td><a href=#>2002-02-02</a></td>
      <td><b>-17</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><i>Argentina</i></td>
      <td>2005-04-04</td>
      <td><a href=#>100</a></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>USA</td>
      <td></td>
      <td>-6</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Another approach to sort HTML table. (based on W3.JS HTML Sort)

var collection = [{
  "Country": "France",
  "Date": "2001-01-01",
  "Size": "25",
}, {
  "Country": "spain",
  "Date": "2005-05-05",
  "Size": "",
}, {
  "Country": "Lebanon",
  "Date": "2002-02-02",
  "Size": "-17",
}, {
  "Country": "Argentina",
  "Date": "2005-04-04",
  "Size": "100",
}, {
  "Country": "USA",
  "Date": "",
  "Size": "-6",
}]

for (var j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
  $("#myTable th:eq(" + j + ")").addClass("control-label clickable");
  $("#myTable th:eq(" + j + ")").attr('onClick', "w3.sortHTML('#myTable', '.item', 'td:nth-child(" + (j + 1) + ")')");
}

$tbody = $("#myTable").append('<tbody></tbody>');

for (var i = 0; i < collection.length; i++) {
  $tbody = $tbody.append('<tr class="item"><td>' + collection[i]["Country"] + '</td><td>' + collection[i]["Date"] + '</td><td>' + collection[i]["Size"] + '</td></tr>');
}

.control-label:after {
  content: "*";
  color: red;
}

.clickable {
  cursor: pointer;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://www.w3schools.com/lib/w3.js"></script>
<link href="https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/4/w3.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<p>Click the <strong>table headers</strong> to sort the table accordingly:</p>

<table id="myTable" class="w3-table-all">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Country</th>
      <th>Date</th>
      <th>Size</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
</table>

Another compact but readable solution: It just requires adding the class .order to the <th> element of each column to be ordered

document.querySelectorAll('th.order').forEach(th_elem => {
    let asc=true
	const index = Array.from(th_elem.parentNode.children).indexOf(th_elem)			
	th_elem.addEventListener('click', (e) => {				
		const arr = [... th_elem.closest("table").querySelectorAll('tbody tr')]
		arr.sort( (a, b) => {
			const a_val = a.children[index].innerText
			const b_val = b.children[index].innerText					
			return (asc) ? a_val.localeCompare(b_val) : b_val.localeCompare(a_val)
		})
		arr.forEach(elem => {					
    		th_elem.closest("table").querySelector("tbody").appendChild(elem)
   		})
    	asc = !asc
    })
})

In case your table does not have ths but only tds (with headers included) you can try the following which is based on Nick Grealy's answer above:

const getCellValue = (tr, idx) => tr.children[idx].innerText || tr.children[idx].textContent;

const comparer = (idx, asc) => (a, b) => ((v1, v2) => 
    v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2) ? v1 - v2 : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2)
    )(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));

// do the work...
document.querySelectorAll('tr:first-child td').forEach(td => td.addEventListener('click', (() => {
    const table = td.closest('table');
    Array.from(table.querySelectorAll('tr:nth-child(n+2)'))
        .sort(comparer(Array.from(td.parentNode.children).indexOf(td), this.asc = !this.asc))
        .forEach(tr => table.appendChild(tr) );
})));

@charset "UTF-8";
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto');

*{
  font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif;
  text-transform:capitalize;
  overflow:hidden;
  margin: 0 auto;
  text-align:left;
}

table {
	color:#666;
	font-size:12px;
	background:#124;
	border:#ccc 1px solid;
	-moz-border-radius:3px;
	-webkit-border-radius:3px;
	border-radius:3px;
  border-collapse: collapse;
  width: 100%;
}

table td {
	padding:10px;
	border-top: 1px solid #ffffff;
	border-bottom:1px solid #e0e0e0;
	border-left: 1px solid #e0e0e0;
	background: #fafafa;
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#fbfbfb), to(#fafafa));
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #fbfbfb,  #fafafa);
  width: 6.9in;
}

table tbody tr:first-child td
{
	background: #124!important;
  color:#fff;
}

table tbody tr th
{
  padding:10px;
  border-left: 1px solid #e0e0e0;
	background: #124!important;
  color:#fff;
}

<table>
        <tr><td>Country</td><td>Date</td><td>Size</td></tr>
        <tr><td>France</td><td>2001-01-01</td><td><i>25</i></td></tr>
        <tr><td>spain</td><td>2005-05-05</td><td></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Lebanon</td><td>2002-02-02</td><td><b>-17</b></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Argentina</td><td>2005-04-04</td><td>100</td></tr>
        <tr><td>USA</td><td></td><td>-6</td></tr>
    </table>

Sorting html table column on page load

var table = $('table#all_items_table');
var rows = table.find('tr:gt(0)').toArray().sort(comparer(3));
for (var i = 0; i < rows.length; i++) {
    table.append(rows[i])
}
function comparer(index) {
    return function (a, b) {
        var v1= getCellValue(a, index),
        v2= getCellValue(b, index);
        return $.isNumeric(v2) && $.isNumeric(v1) ? v2 - v1: v2.localeCompare(v1)
    }
}


function getCellValue(row, index) {
    return parseFloat($(row).children('td').eq(index).html().replace(/,/g,'')); //1234234.45645->1234234
}

I have edited the code from one of the example here to use jquery. It's still not 100% jquery though. Any thoughts on the two different versions, like what are the pros and cons of each?

function column_sort() {
    getCellValue = (tr, idx) => $(tr).find('td').eq( idx ).text();

    comparer = (idx, asc) => (a, b) => ((v1, v2) => 
        v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2) ? v1 - v2 : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2)
        )(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));
    
    table = $(this).closest('table')[0];
    tbody = $(table).find('tbody')[0];

    elm = $(this)[0];
    children = elm.parentNode.children;
    Array.from(tbody.querySelectorAll('tr')).sort( comparer(
        Array.from(children).indexOf(elm), table.asc = !table.asc))
        .forEach(tr => tbody.appendChild(tr) );
}

table.find('thead th').on('click', column_sort);

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
  table, td, th {
    border: 1px solid;
    border-collapse: collapse;
  }
  td , th {
    padding: 5px;
    width: 100px;
  }
  th {
    background-color: lightgreen;
  }
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h2>JavaScript Array Sort</h2>

<p>Click the buttons to sort car objects on age.</p>

<p id="demo"></p>

<script>
var nameArrow = "", yearArrow = "";
var cars = [
  {type:"Volvo", year:2016},
  {type:"Saab", year:2001},
  {type:"BMW", year:2010}
];
yearACS = true;
function sortYear() {
  if (yearACS) {
    nameArrow = "";
    yearArrow = "🔽";
    cars.sort(function(a,b) {
      return a.year - b.year;
    });
    yearACS = false;
  }else {
    nameArrow = "";
    yearArrow = "🔼";
    cars.sort(function(a,b) {
      return b.year - a.year;
    });
    yearACS = true;
  }
  displayCars();
}
nameACS = true;
function sortName() {
  if (nameACS) {
    nameArrow = "🔽";
    yearArrow = "";
    cars.sort(function(a,b) {
      x = a.type.toLowerCase();
      y = b.type.toLowerCase();
      if (x > y) {return 1;}
      if (x < y) {return -1};
      return 0;
    });
    nameACS = false;
  } else {
    nameArrow = "🔼";
    yearArrow = "";
    cars.sort(function(a,b) {
      x = a.type.toUpperCase();
      y = b.type.toUpperCase();
      if (x > y) { return -1};
      if (x <y) { return 1 };
      return 0;
    });
    nameACS = true;
  }
  displayCars();
}

displayCars();

function displayCars() {
  var txt = "<table><tr><th onclick='sortName()'>name " + nameArrow + "</th><th onclick='sortYear()'>year " + yearArrow + "</th><tr>";
  for (let i = 0; i < cars.length; i++) {
    txt += "<tr><td>"+ cars[i].type + "</td><td>" + cars[i].year + "</td></tr>";
  }
  txt += "</table>";
  document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = txt;
}

</script>

</body>
</html>

I'm very grateful for the accepted answer and jedwards' fix, but I also find them poorly readable. So here's my refactored and verbose version:

// Remember that strings are false positives for isNaN
const isEmptyOrNaN = (obj) => obj === "" || isNaN(obj);

const getCellValueInColumn = (tr, columnIdx) =>
  tr.children[columnIdx].innerText || tr.children[columnIdx].textContent;

const compareCellValues = (cellValue1, cellValue2) => {
  return isEmptyOrNaN(cellValue1) || isEmptyOrNaN(cellValue2)
    ? cellValue1.toString().localeCompare(cellValue2)
    : cellValue1 - cellValue2;
};

const compareFnFactory = (columnIdx, ascending) => (firstEl, secondEl) => {
  const cellValue1 = getCellValueInColumn(firstEl, columnIdx);
  const cellValue2 = getCellValueInColumn(secondEl, columnIdx);
  return ascending
    ? compareCellValues(cellValue1, cellValue2)
    : compareCellValues(cellValue2, cellValue1);
};

document.querySelectorAll("th").forEach((th) =>
  th.addEventListener("click", () => {
    const table = th.closest("table");
    const tbody = table.querySelector("tbody");
    const columnIdx = Array.from(th.parentNode.children).indexOf(th);
    const compareFn = compareFnFactory(columnIdx, (this.ascending = !this.ascending));
    Array.from(tbody.querySelectorAll("tr"))
      .sort(compareFn)
      .forEach((tr) => tbody.appendChild(tr));
  })
);

If you find any extra spaces or parenthesis, unnecessary indents, etc., it's because I've formatted the code with prettier.

I've wrapped this code inside a:

javascript: (function () {
  // Code here
})();

and put it into a bookmarklet, so now I can sort columns inside Keycloak Admin Console.

I've found myself using @NickGrealy method to sort items and it works great! (https://stackoverflow.com/a/49041392/18045902)

Issue I had is that i'm using a different format for date: dd-mm-YY instead of the ISO one.

As I'm passing data from a .php file as a string I had to convert the string in a date then compare with ><==

Substitute the compare function

// Returns a function responsible for sorting a specific column index 
// (idx = columnIndex, asc = ascending order?).
var comparer = function(idx, asc) { 

// This is used by the array.sort() function...
return function(a, b) { 

    // This is a transient function, that is called straight away. 
    // It allows passing in different order of args, based on 
    // the ascending/descending order.
    return function(v1, v2) {

        // sort based on a numeric or localeCompare, based on type...
        return (v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2)) 
            ? v1 - v2 
            : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2);
    }(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));
}

};

with this:

    var comparer = function(idx, asc) { 

// This is used by the array.sort() function...
return function(a, b) { 

    // This is a transient function, that is called straight away. 
    // It allows passing in different order of args, based on 
    // the ascending/descending order.
    return function(v1, v2) {
        
        if(v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2)){
            x = v1 - v2;
            console.log(v1); 
        } else if(v1.includes("-")) {
            var partsArray1 = v1.split('-');
            var partsArray2 = v2.split('-');
            var data1 = new Date(partsArray1[2],partsArray1[1],partsArray1[0]);
            var data2 = new Date(partsArray2[2],partsArray2[1],partsArray2[0]);
            if(data1>data2){
                x=1;
            } else if (data1<data2) {
                x=-1;
            } else if (data1==data2) {
                x=0;
            }
            

        } else {
            x = v1.toString().localeCompare(v2);
        }
        // sort based on a numeric or localeCompare, based on type...
        //return (v1 !== '' && v2 !== '' && !isNaN(v1) && !isNaN(v2)) 
        //    ? v1 - v2 
        //    : v1.toString().localeCompare(v2);

        return x;

    }(getCellValue(asc ? a : b, idx), getCellValue(asc ? b : a, idx));
}
};

NOTE: this will only work if the date you are trying to parse is a string in the dd-mm-YY format. If you need a different format change the includes() and the split() character (in my case is "-") and the order of the date you are creating with Date().

If there's something wrong with this method please comment.