Sort table in HTML by column with date values desc using only javaScript

Question

Is it possible to make sorting function using only javaScript, without any other library for sorting?

Let's say I have one table, and it's first column that has date values in this format: MM/dd/yyyy. Table has two more columns, like this:

<table id="results" width="360" border="1">
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Date Created</th>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Name</th>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Tests</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>07/08/2015</td>
        <td>Test Name</td>
        <td>Raven</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>05/04/2015</td>
        <td>Test Name 4</td>
        <td>Raven 3</td>
      </tr>
      <tr/>
        <td>01/08/2017</td>
        <td>Test Name 2</td>
        <td>PCT</td>
      </tr>
    </thead>
</table>

Would it be possible to lets say add one button, and on click event sort rows by values in Date column?

I have to accomplish this using only plain javaScript and HTML, so no jQuery unfortunately :(

Answer 1

Here's a little something I whipped up to give you some ideas. Obviously you could extend this to sort by other data types.

I've "cheated" on the date comparisons by just changing the string format date directly to an eight-digit number in the form 20140312 from "12/03/2014" - note that I've assumed the date input format is dd/mm/yyyy, so if for some reason you're actually using mm/dd/yyyy you'll have to tweak the convertDate() function.

Also I've introduced a <tbody> into your table so that I can just sort the data rows and completely ignore the header row.

function convertDate(d) {
  var p = d.split("/");
  return +(p[2]+p[1]+p[0]);
}

function sortByDate() {
  var tbody = document.querySelector("#results tbody");
  // get trs as array for ease of use
  var rows = [].slice.call(tbody.querySelectorAll("tr"));
  
  rows.sort(function(a,b) {
    return convertDate(a.cells[0].innerHTML) - convertDate(b.cells[0].innerHTML);
  });
  
  rows.forEach(function(v) {
    tbody.appendChild(v); // note that .appendChild() *moves* elements
  });
}

document.querySelector("button").addEventListener("click", sortByDate);

<table id="results" width="360" border="1">
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Date Created</th>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Name</th>
        <th scope="col" width="120">Tests</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
       <tr>
        <td>04/04/2015</td>
        <td>Test Name 2</td>
        <td>1</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>09/08/2017</td>
        <td>Test Name 5</td>
        <td>2</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>07/08/2015</td>
        <td>Test Name 4</td>
        <td>3</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>05/04/2015</td>
        <td>Test Name 3</td>
        <td>4</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>12/08/2017</td>
        <td>Test Name 6</td>
        <td>5</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>21/03/2014</td>
        <td>Test Name 1</td>
        <td>6</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<button>Sort by date</button>