Angular UI-grid not sorting by date - angular-ui-grid

Question

I am using UI-grid, and I have a bunch of JS date objects like so:
"dob": new Date('1942-11-19')
I want to be able to filter the column by date when you click the "sort ascending/descending" buttons. As such, I have set the colDef up like so:
{
field: 'dob'
, displayName: 'D.O.B.'
, width: '130'
, editableCellTemplate: '<div><form name="inputForm"><input type="INPUT_TYPE" ng-class="\'colt\' + col.uid" ui-grid-editor ng-model="MODEL_COL_FIELD" style="border-bottom-color: #74B3CE; border-bottom-width: 2px;"></form></div>'
, headerCellClass: $scope.highlightFilteredHeader
, cellTemplate: '<div class="ui-grid-cell-contents" >{{grid.getCellValue(row, col)| date:\'MM-dd-yyyy\'}}</div>'
, cellFilter: 'date'
, type: 'date'
},
however, the column simply does not sort correctly. I even tried to set up a function to sort it from an external button like so:
function mostRecent(){
console.log('clicked mostRecent');
$scope.gridApi.grid.sortColumn(
$scope.gridApi.grid.getColumn('dob'), uiGridConstants.DESC
);
$scope.gridApi.grid.notifyDataChange(uiGridConstants.dataChange.ALL); //this line updates the rest of the columns accordingly
};
But it also causes a mish-mush sort that is not correct. Does anyone know what the issue is? I thought it might have to do with my cellTemplate, but after removing the template, there wasn't a difference...

Answer 1

Yes you are right, ui-grid doesn't support sorting of Date type columns.
However you can define a sortingAlgorithm in the columnDef.
Here is how your column definition should look like:
...
columnDefinition.sortingAlgorithm = function (firstDateString, secondDateString) {
var dateFormat = 'YYYY-MM-DD';
return function (firstDateString, secondDateString, dateFormat) {
if (!firstDateString && !secondDateString) {
return 0;
}
if (!firstDateString) {
return 1;
}
if (!secondDateString) {
return -1;
}
var firstDate = $window.moment(firstDateString, dateFormat);
if (!firstDate.isValid()) {
throw new Error('Invalid date: ', firstDateString);
}
var secondDate = $window.moment(secondDateString, dateFormat);
if (!firstDate.isValid()) {
throw new Error('Invalid date: ', secondDateString);
}
if (firstDate.isSame(secondDate)) {
return 0;
} else {
return firstDate.isBefore(secondDate) ? -1 : 1;
}
};
};
...
Please note that in this example Moment.js is used. It is a very useful library so you might probably find also another place in your project where to use it.

Answer 2

$scope.gridOptions = {
data: 'gridData',
columnDefs: [
{field: 'name', displayName: 'Name'},
{field:'age',
displayName:'Birth Date',
sortFn: function (aDate, bDate) {
var a=new Date(aDate);
var b=new Date(bDate);
if (a < b) {
return -1;
}
else if (a > b) {
return 1;
}
else {
return 0;
}
}
}]
};
Try this
http://plnkr.co/edit/0VD3X5YvuNSWAZlig95X?p=info
reference :
https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-grid/issues/222

Answer 3

You can define the Sorting Algorithm for the date fields in UI Grid like below
columnDefs: [
{
field: 'DateFrom', displayName: 'From',
sortingAlgorithm: function (aDate, bDate, rowA, rowB, direction) {
var a = new Date(moment(aDate, "DD-MM-YYYY").format("YYYY-MM-DD"));
//here DD-MM-YYYY is the current format in which the dates are returned
var b = new Date(moment(bDate, "DD-MM-YYYY").format("YYYY-MM-DD"));
if (a < b) {
return -1;
}
else if (a > b) {
return 1;
}
else {
return 0;
}
}
}
]

Answer 4

We can sort the ui-grid column containing date field in a simplest way.
Make use of cellTemplate in this way:
{
name: "Date",
field: 'date',
cellTemplate:'<div>{{row.entity.date | date:"dd/MM/yyyy"}}</div>'
},
So, you can choose any format for date, for eg. date:"dd-MM" etc.