How to retrieve sorting status of JQuery Datatables

Question

I'm pretty new to JQuery Datatables,

I'm attempting to retrieve two information about the Datatable

1. Which column index is currently being sorted (aka selected)
2. Which order it is being sorted (asc or desc)

not sure how I should approach this (use jquery to find the column index or does Datatables have an API that allows me to retrieve this information.

thanks a lot :D

Answer 1

I'm not sure what do you mean by "retrieve", but if you define your datatable like this:

myDataTable = $('#my-table').dataTable({
              .
              .
              .
              });

You have access to its setting via:

myDataTable.fnSettings();

See also:

1. http://datatables.net/api#fnSettings
2. http://datatables.net/docs/DataTables/1.9.0/DataTable.models.oSettings.html

For example to get an array of columns sorted columns, try:

myDataTable.fnSettings().aaSorting;

http://datatables.net/docs/DataTables/1.9.0/DataTable.models.oSettings.html#aaSorting

Answer 2

the method order() returns an array of arrays containing index and direction sorting .

take a look at api