Pradeep K. Pant Blog

date sorting in datatables using moment js

Sorting dates could be tricky because of various date and time format used. Fortunately there is awsome js lib called moment.js library avaliable, this is free and open source. I have made a small demo of how moment.js is used with datatables. for date sorting. First let have a look into how many date time types which moment.js supports.

Format Dates

moment().format('MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a'); // March 12th 2019, 6:46:42 pm
moment().format('dddd');                    // Tuesday
moment().format("MMM Do YY");               // Mar 12th 19
moment().format('YYYY [escaped] YYYY');     // 2019 escaped 2019
moment().format();                          // 2019-03-12T18:46:42+05:30
                                            // undefined

Relative Time

moment("20111031", "YYYYMMDD").fromNow(); // 7 years ago
moment("20120620", "YYYYMMDD").fromNow(); // 7 years ago
moment().startOf('day').fromNow();        // 19 hours ago
moment().endOf('day').fromNow();          // in 5 hours
moment().startOf('hour').fromNow();       // an hour ago
                                          // undefined

Calendar Time

moment().subtract(10, 'days').calendar(); // 03/02/2019
moment().subtract(6, 'days').calendar();  // Last Wednesday at 6:46 PM
moment().subtract(3, 'days').calendar();  // Last Saturday at 6:46 PM
moment().subtract(1, 'days').calendar();  // Yesterday at 6:46 PM
moment().calendar();                      // Today at 6:46 PM
moment().add(1, 'days').calendar();       // Tomorrow at 6:46 PM
moment().add(3, 'days').calendar();       // Friday at 6:46 PM
moment().add(10, 'days').calendar();      // 03/22/2019
                                          // undefined

Multiple Locale Support

moment.locale();         // en
moment().format('LT');   // 6:46 PM
moment().format('LTS');  // 6:46:42 PM
moment().format('L');    // 03/12/2019
moment().format('l');    // 3/12/2019
moment().format('LL');   // March 12, 2019
moment().format('ll');   // Mar 12, 2019
moment().format('LLL');  // March 12, 2019 6:46 PM
moment().format('lll');  // Mar 12, 2019 6:46 PM
moment().format('LLLL'); // Tuesday, March 12, 2019 6:46 PM
moment().format('llll'); // Tue, Mar 12, 2019 6:46 PM
                        

I have used the following libs to make this demo:

• jquery
• data table
• moment.js
• datetime-moment.js

HTML source

<h3 class="ui_title">Employee joining data</h3>
<div class="ui_block">
<table id="myTable1" class="ui_table">
<thead id="table_head">
<tr>
<th style="width:150px;">Name</th>
<th style="width:50px;">Designation</th>
<th>Joining date</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
	<td>Ram</td>	
	<td>Engineer</td>
	<td>18/10/2015</td>	
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>Shyam</td>	
	<td>Engineer</td>
	<td>05/01/2012</td>	
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>Suresh</td>	
	<td>Sr. Engineer</td>
	<td>22/06/2010</td>	
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>Ahmed</td>	
	<td>Manager</td>
	<td>02/02/2002</td>	
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>Leena</td>	
	<td>Sr. Manager</td>
	<td>01/01/2018</td>	
</tr>
<tr>
	<td>Pradeep</td>	
	<td>Architect</td>
	<td>21/05/2012</td>	
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

jQuery

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
$.fn.dataTableExt.oPagination.iFullNumbersShowPages = 3;
$.fn.dataTable.moment('DD/MM/YYYY');
		$("#myTable1").DataTable({	
		"autoWidth": false,
		"destroy": true,
		"order": [[2, 'desc']],
		"pageLength": 15,
		"lengthMenu": [ [10, 25, 50, -1], [10, 25, 50, "All"] ],
		"pagingType": "full_numbers"
});
});	

CSS

/* 1. GENERAL */
* {
	font-family: /* 'Roboto', */ Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 13px;
	box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
	font-family: /* 'Roboto', */ Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
	background: #f8f8f8; /* e2dbc5; */
	margin: 1em;
}

.ui_title {
	font-family: /* 'Open Sans', */ Verdana, sans-serif;
	color: #2A3F54;
	font-weight: 400;
	font-size: 24px;
	line-height:26.4px;
	border-bottom: 1px solid  #2A3F54;
}

.ui_title i {
	font-size: 24px;
}

/* BLOCKS */
.ui_block {
	min-width: 20px;
	background: white;
	border: 0; /* 1px solid #ebebeb;*/
	padding: 1em 1em;
	margin-bottom: 2em;
	box-shadow: 0 4px 6px 0 hsla(0,0%,0%,0.2);
}

.ui_block h3,
.ui_block h3 i {
	font-family: /* 'Open Sans', */ Verdana, sans-serif;
	border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(230,233,237);
	color: rgb(115,135,156);
	font-weight: 400;
	font-size: 16px;
	line-height: 18.7px;
	padding: 0;
	margin: 1em 0 0.5em 0;
}
.ui_block h3:first-child {
	margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 0;
}

/* 3. TABLE */
.ui_table {
	border: 1px solid black;
	border-collapse: collapse;
	width:100%;
	margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.ui_table th {
	text-align: left;
	background: lightgray;
}
.ui_table td,
.ui_table th {
	border: 1px solid gray;
	padding: 3px 5px;
	font-size: 10pt;
	font-weight: 400;
}

Demo

jsFiddle
https://jsfiddle.net/ppant/efL3pvq2/3/
Github
https://github.com/ppant/jshacks/blob/master/data-table-date-sorting.html

References:

• momentjs lib:
  https://momentjs.com/
• Datetable moment plugin:
  https://datatables.net/plug-ins/sorting/datetime-moment