JS-vault. Make all your tables sortable.

Sortable Tables Script

Include the Javascript library, by putting a link to it in the HEAD of your page, like so:
```
<script src="sorttable.js">
```
Mark your table as a sortable one by giving it a class of "sortable":
```
<table class="sortable">
```
Ensure that your table has an ID:
```
<table class="sortable" id="unique_id">
```

And that's all you need. Your table will now have column sorting available by clicking the headers. For niceness, you might want to add the following styles to your stylesheet, or make up some of your own based on this:


/* Sortable tables */
table.sortable a.sortheader {
    background-color:#eee;
    color:#666666;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-decoration: none;
    display: block;
}
table.sortable span.sortarrow {
    color: black;
    text-decoration: none;
}

The Javascript library (sorttable.js):

var SORT_COLUMN_INDEX;

newRows.sort(sortfn);

if (span.getAttribute("sortdir") == 'down') {
        ARROW = '  ↑';
        newRows.reverse();
        span.setAttribute('sortdir','up');
    } else {
        ARROW = '  ↓';
        span.setAttribute('sortdir','down');
    }
    
    // We appendChild rows that already exist to the tbody, so it moves them rather than creating new ones
    // don't do sortbottom rows
    for (i=0;i<newRows.length;i++) { if (!newRows[i].className || (newRows[i].className && (newRows[i].className.indexOf('sortbottom') == -1))) table.tBodies[0].appendChild(newRows[i]);}
    // do sortbottom rows only
    for (i=0;i<newRows.length;i++) { if (newRows[i].className && (newRows[i].className.indexOf('sortbottom') != -1)) table.tBodies[0].appendChild(newRows[i]);}
    
    // Delete any other arrows there may be showing
    var allspans = document.getElementsByTagName("span");
    for (var ci=0;ci<allspans.length;ci++) {
        if (allspans[ci].className == 'sortarrow') {
            if (getParent(allspans[ci],"table") == getParent(lnk,"table")) { // in the same table as us?
                allspans[ci].innerHTML = '   ';
            }
        }
    }
        
    span.innerHTML = ARROW;
}

function ts_sort_currency(a,b) { 
    aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).replace(/[^0-9.]/g,'');
    bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).replace(/[^0-9.]/g,'');
    return parseFloat(aa) - parseFloat(bb);
}

function ts_sort_numeric(a,b) { 
    aa = parseFloat(ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]));
    if (isNaN(aa)) aa = 0;
    bb = parseFloat(ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX])); 
    if (isNaN(bb)) bb = 0;
    return aa-bb;
}

function ts_sort_caseinsensitive(a,b) {
    aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).toLowerCase();
    bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]).toLowerCase();
    if (aa==bb) return 0;
    if (aa<bb) return -1;
    return 1;
}

function ts_sort_default(a,b) {
    aa = ts_getInnerText(a.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
    bb = ts_getInnerText(b.cells[SORT_COLUMN_INDEX]);
    if (aa==bb) return 0;
    if (aa<bb) return -1;
    return 1;
}

Test the script

Name	Salary	Extension	Start date
Bloggs, Fred	$12000.00	1353	18/08/2003
Turvey, Kevin	$191200.00	2342	02/05/1979
Mbogo, Arnold	$32010.12	2755	09/08/1998
Shakespeare, Bill	$122000.00	3211	12/11/1961
Shakespeare, Hamnet	$9000	9005	01/01/2002
Fitz, Marvin	$3300	5554	22/05/1995