Scientific notation sorting

Sort data which is written in exponential notation.

• Author: Nick Schurch

This plug-in will treat numbers which are in scientific notation (for example 1E-10, 1.2E6 etc) and sort them numerically.

Plug-in code

jQuery.extend( jQuery.fn.dataTableExt.oSort, {
    "scientific-pre": function ( a ) {
        return parseFloat(a);
    },

    "scientific-asc": function ( a, b ) {
        return ((a < b) ? -1 : ((a > b) ? 1 : 0));
    },

    "scientific-desc": function ( a, b ) {
        return ((a < b) ? 1 : ((a > b) ? -1 : 0));
    }
} );

CDN

This plug-in is available on the DataTables CDN:

Note that if you are using multiple plug-ins, it is 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.

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: scientific.js
• Full DataTables plug-ins repository: DataTables/Plugins

Example

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