Any number

Sort column with mixed numerical content by number

Author: David Konrad

Sorts columns by any number, ignoring text. This plugin is useful if you have mixed content in a column, but still want to sort by numbers. Any number means

integers, like 42
decimal numbers, like 42.42 / 42,42
signed numbers, like -42.42 / +42.42
scientific numbers, like 42.42e+10
illegal numbers, like 042, which is considered as 42,
currency numbers, like €42,00

Plain text is ignored; columns with no recognizable numerical content is pushed to the bottom of the table, both ascending and descending.

Use

This plug-in can be obtained and used in multiple different ways.

Browser

This plug-in is available on the DataTables CDN:

The plug-in will then automatically register itself against a global DataTables instance. This file can also be used if you are using an AMD loader such as Require.js.

Note that if you are using multiple plug-ins, it can be beneficial in terms of performance to combine the plug-ins into a single file and host it on your own server, rather than making multiple requests to the DataTables CDN.

NPM

The plug-ins are all available on NPM (which can also be used with Yarn or any other Javascript package manager) as part of the datatables.net-plugins package. To use this plug-in, first install the plug-ins package:

npm install datatables.net-plugins

ES modules

Then, if you are using ES modules, import datatables.net, any other DataTables extensions you need, and the plug-in:

import DataTable from 'datatables.net';
import 'datatables.net-plugins/sorting/any-number.mjs';

CommonJS

If you are using a CommonJS loader for Node (e.g. with older versions of Webpack, or non-module Node code) use the following method to require the plug-in:

var $ = require('jquery');
var DataTable = require('datatables.net');
require('datatables.net-plugins/sorting/any-number.js');

Example

$('#example').dataTable( {
     columnDefs: [
       { type: 'any-number', targets : 0 }
     ]
  } );

Version control

If you have any ideas for how this plug-in can be improved, or spot anything that is in error, it is available on GitHub and pull requests are very welcome!

This plug-in: any-number.js
Full DataTables plug-ins repository: DataTables/Plugins