If true, the cache will contain duplicated cell contents for every column the colspan includes. This makes it easier to sort & filter columns because a cell spanning all columns will only work with one parser.

In v2.25.8, the contents of cells that are spanned will be set to an empty string only if the textExtraction setting is left as a string. If a function is added, it will be used to attempt to extract other content from the spanned cell (see demo for an example).

// this row: <tr><td colspan="3">foo</td><td>bar</td></tr> results in this row cache:
[ 'foo', 'foo', 'foo', 'bar' ] // if duplicateSpan = true
[ 'foo', '',    '',    'bar' ] // if duplicateSpan = false (no textExtraction function)

*NOTE*

• Cells in the tbody with a rowspan are not yet supported and will not sort or filter as you would expect.
• Having these values in the cache does not automatically guarantee that all widgets will work as expected with colspans in the tbody (e.g. scroller widget with fixed columns)

Changed to empty string ("") in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-headerAsc" class will always be added to a header cell with an ascending sort; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

Example from the blue theme:

.tablesorter-blue .tablesorter-headerAsc {
  background-color: #9fbfdf;
  background-image: url(black-asc.gif);
}

Default changed v2.5 to "tablesorter-headerAsc". Default changed v2.1.7 to "tablesorter-headerSortUp". Original default: "headerSortUp"

Changed to empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-headerDesc" class will always be added to a header cell with a descending sort; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

Example from the blue theme:

.tablesorter-blue .tablesorter-headerDesc {
  background-color: #8cb3d9;
  background-image: url(black-desc.gif);
}

Default changed v2.5 to "tablesorter-headerDesc". Default changed v2.1.7 to "tablesorter-headerSortDown". Original default: "headerSortDown"

Changed to empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-header" class will always be added to the table headers; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

Example from the blue theme:

.tablesorter-blue .tablesorter-header {
  background-color: #99bfe6;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: center right;
  padding: 4px 20px 4px 4px;
  white-space: normal;
  cursor: pointer;
}

Default changed v2.1.7 to "tablesorter-header". Original default: "header"

Changed to empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-headerRow" class will always be added to a table header row; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

This CSS style was added in v2.4, prior to that the row would get the same class as the header cells. This class was added to make it easier to determine what element was being targeted in the plugin.

In v2.21.1, adding multiple class names to this option is now properly supported.

As of v2.7, the icon will only be added to the header if both the cssIcon option is set AND the headerTemplate option includes the icon tag ({icon}).

In v2.4, an <i> element, with this class name, is automatically appended to the header cells. To prevent the plugin from adding an <i> element to the headers, set the cssIcon option to an empty string.

This class is only applied when the headerTemplate option includes a {icon} tag or an HTML element with the class name from the cssIcon option.

This class is only applied when the headerTemplate option includes a {icon} tag or an HTML element with the class name from the cssIcon option.

This class is only applied when the headerTemplate option includes a {icon} tag or an HTML element with the class name from the cssIcon option.

This class is only applied when the headerTemplate option includes a {icon} tag or an HTML element with the class name from the cssIcon option.

A "tablesorter-headerUnSorted" class will always be added to an unsorted header cell; this option contains any additional class names to add. Currently, no themes use this class name.

Changed to empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-processing" class will always be added to a table cells during processing; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

This class name is added to the header cell that is currently being sorted or filted. To prevent this class name from being added, set the showProcessing option to false.

With the addition of multiple tbody sorting in v2.2, you can now insert a non-sorting tbody within the table by adding this class to the tbody.

<tbody class="tablesorter-infoOnly">
  <tr>
    <th>The contents of this tbody</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>will not be sorted</td>
  </tr>
</tbody>

As an example, I've split up this options table into three (3) tbodies. The first contains the active options, the second is the info block with a row that only contains the text "Deprecated Options", and the last tbody contains the deprecated options. Sort the table to see how each tbody sorts separately.

NOTE! The pager plugin will only be applied to the first tbody, as always. I may work on modifying this behavior in the future, if I can figure out the best implementation.

Header rows with this class name will not be added into the table.config.$headers variable. Meaning, any cells in the row will have sorting disabled, and any form element interaction within these cells will also be ignored by tablesorter.

This class name should be added to header rows that contain custom HTML, like for the pager controls, custom filter row or table toolbar.

• "mmddyyyy" (default)
• "ddmmyyyy"
• "yyyymmdd"

In previous versions, this option was set as "us", "uk" or "dd/mm/yy". This option was modified to better fit needed date formats. It will only work with four digit years!

The sorter should be set to "shortDate" and the date format can be set in the "dateFormat" option or set for a specific columns within the "headers" option. See the demo page to see it working.

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({

    dateFormat : "mmddyyyy", // default date format

    // or to change the format for specific columns,
    // add the dateFormat to the headers option:
    headers: {
      0: { sorter: "shortDate" }, // "shortDate" with the default dateFormat above
      1: { sorter: "shortDate", dateFormat: "ddmmyyyy" }, // day first format
      2: { sorter: "shortDate", dateFormat: "yyyymmdd" }  // year first format
    }

  });
});

Individual columns can be modified by adding the following (they all do the same thing), set in order of priority (Modified v2.3.1):

• jQuery data data-dateFormat="mmddyyyy".
• metadata class="{ dateFormat: 'mmddyyyy'}". This requires the metadata plugin.
• headers option headers : { 0 : { dateFormat : 'mmddyyyy' } }.
• header class name class="dateFormat-mmddyyyy".
• Overall dateFormat option.

In Updated v2.30.0, set this option as a string containing either "core" and/or a specific widget name; or, a boolean value.

When a boolean flag is set, all debugging information is shown in the console.

To display debugging information specific to a widget, or widgets include the widget name:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    // Show debugging info only for the filter and columnSelector widgets
    // include "core" to only show the core debugging info
    debug : "filter columnSelector"
  });
});

The option only tests if the string contains the widget name, so "corefilter" would show debugging for both the core and filter widget.

• bottom - sort empty table cells to the bottom.
• top - sort empty table cells to the top.
• none or zero - sort empty table cells as if the cell has the value equal to zero.
• emptyMax - sort empty table cells as having a value greater than the max (more positive) value (v2.16.2).
• emptyMin - sort empty table cells as having a value greater than the min (more negative) value (v2.16.2).

Individual columns can be modified by adding the following (they all do the same thing), set in order of priority:

• jQuery data data-empty="top".
• metadata class="{ empty: 'top'}". This requires the metadata plugin.
• headers option headers : { 0 : { empty : 'top' } }.
• header class name class="empty-top".
• Overall emptyTo option.

emptyToBottom option was added in v2.1.11, then replaced by the emptyTo option in v2.1.16.

Warning Do not use this option if your header contains multiple rows or any colspan or rowspan. Instead add a data-attribute or class name to the header (see the first demo for an example).

For example, to disable sorting on the first two columns of a table: headers: { 0: { sorter: false}, 1: {sorter: false} }.

The plugin attempts to detect the type of data that is contained in a column, but if it can't figure it out then it defaults to alphanumeric. You can easily override this by setting the header argument (or column parser). See the full list of default parsers here or here, or write your own.

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    headers: {

      // See example - Disable first header cell; parser false skips extracting content
      0: { sorter: false, parser: false },

      // WARNING! The "ipAddress" parser was MOVED into the "parser-network.js" file
      // in v2.18.0
      1: { sorter: "ipAddress" },

      // See example 2: Sort column numerically & treat any text as if its value is:
      2: { sorter: "digit", empty:  "top" }, // zero; sort empty cells to the top
      3: { sorter: "digit", string: "max" }, // maximum positive value
      4: { sorter: "digit", string: "min" }, // maximum negative value

      // Sort the sixth column by date & set the format
      5: { sorter: "shortDate", dateFormat: "yyyymmdd" }, // year first format

      // See example 3: lock the sort order
      // this option will not work if added as metadata
      6: { lockedOrder: "asc" },

      // See Example 4: Initial sort order direction of 8th header cell
      7: { sortInitialOrder: "desc" },

      // Set filter widget options for this column
      // See the "Applying the filter widget" demo
      8: { filter: false },    // disable filter widget for this column
      9: { filter: "parsed" }, // use parsed data for this column in the filter search

      // Set resizable widget options for this column
      10: { resizable: false } // prevent resizing of the 11th column

    }
  });
});

Please note that the headers index values corresponds to the table header cells index (zero-based) and not the actual columns. For example, given the following table thead markup, the header-index counts the header th cells and does not actually match the data-column index when extra rows and/or colspan or rowspan are included in any of the header cells:

<thead>
  <tr>
    <th colspan="4" data-column="0">header-index 0</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th data-column="0">header-index 1</th>
    <th data-column="1">header-index 2</th>
    <th data-column="2">header-index 3</th>
    <th data-column="3">header-index 4</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th colspan="2" data-column="0">header-index 5</th>
    <th colspan="2" data-column="2">header-index 6</th>
  </tr>
</thead>

So, in the above example, to disable the sort of the second table column (data-column index of 1), the header cell of index 2 needs to be set as follows: 2 : { sorter : false }.

In v2.17.0, you can reference the column(s) using a class name, id or column index.

headers : {
    '.first-name' : { sorter: 'text' },
    '.disabled'   : { sorter: false }
}

Warning What won't work is if you try to target the header using a filtering selector that uses an index, e.g. "th:eq()", ":gt()", ":lt()", ":first", ":last", ":even" or ":odd", ":first-child", ":last-child", ":nth-child()", ":nth-last-child()", etc.

In v2.17.8, if this option is set to an empty string (''), an inner div will no longer be wrapped around the header content.

This template string has two modifying tags: {content} and {icon}.
{content} will be replaced by the current header HTML content.
{icon} will be replaced by <i class="tablesorter-icon"></i>, but only if a class name is defined in the cssIcon option.

This template string may also contain HTML, e.g ('<em>{content}</em> {icon}')

After the template string is built, the onRenderTemplate function is called to allow further manipulation. Please read more about this onRenderTemplate function and/or check out the example (link to the right).

$(function() {

  // bind to tablesorter-initialized event BEFORE initializing tablesorter*
  $("table")
    .bind("tablesorter-initialized",function(e, table) {
      // do something after tablesorter has initialized
    });

  // initialize the tablesorter plugin
  $("table").tablesorter({
    // this is equivalent to the above bind method
    initialized : function(table) {
      // do something after tablesorter has initialized
    }
  });

});

* Note: bind to all initialization events before initializing tablesorter; because most of the time, if bound after, the events will fire before the binding occurs.

When true, all widgets set by the widgets option will apply after tablesorter has initialized, this is the normal behavior.

If false, the each widget set by the widgets option will be initialized, meaning the "init" function is run, but the format function will not be run. This is useful when running the pager plugin after the table is set up. The pager plugin will initialize, then apply all set widgets.

Why you ask? Well, lets say you have a table with 1000 rows that will have the pager plugin applied to it. Before this option, the table would finish its setup, all widgets would be applied to the 1000 rows, pager plugin initializes and reapplies the widgets on the say 20 rows showing; making the widget application to 100 rows unnecessary and a waste of time. So, when this option is false, widgets will only be applied to the table after the pager is set up.

By default, this option is set to 'widget-{name}'. So if the table has a class name of widget-zebra the zebra widget will be automatically added to the config.widgets option and applied to the table.

Some widget ID's with special characters may not be detected; ID's with letters, numbers, underscores and/or dashes will be correctly detected.

The template string *must* contain the {name} tag.

In versions 2.0.6+, all TH text is wrapped in a div with a class name of "tablesorter-inner" by default. In the example below, the header cell (TH) div is given a class name (source).

Function parameters:

• index - zero-based index of the current table header cell; this value is not indicative of the column index, as it is simply a count of header cells. So it will be effected by rowspan, colspan and multiple rows in the header.
• config - The current table.config.
• $table - This value is the current table jQuery object. If this function is being applied to cloned headers, as is does in the stickyHeaders widget, then this value will contain the sticky header clone added after the current table, and not the main table (v2.18.0).

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    headerTemplate: '{content}',
    onRenderHeader: function (index, config, $table) {
      $(this).find('div').addClass('roundedCorners');
    }
  });
});

and you'll end up with this HTML (only the thead is shown)

<thead>
  <tr>
    <th class="tablesorter-header"><div class="tablesorter-header-inner roundedCorners">Column 1</div></th>
    <th class="tablesorter-header"><div class="tablesorter-header-inner roundedCorners">Column 2</div></th>
  </tr>
</thead>

* Note: this function adds additional rendering time to the table if any DOM manipulation is done. Because this time will be on top of the processing time already added by the template.

The onRenderTemplate function receives a column index and template string parameters. The template string, from the headerTemplate option, will already have the {icon} and {content} tags replaced; it's just a string of formatted HTML. When done manipulating this string, return it.

Function parameters:

• index - zero-based index of the current table header cell; this value is not indicative of the column index, as it is simply a count of header cells. So it will be effected by rowspan, colspan and multiple rows in the header.
• template - A rendered headerTemplate HTML string.

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    headerTemplate: '{icon}{content}',
    onRenderTemplate: function (index, template) {
      return '<em>' + (index + 1) + ':</em> ' + template;
    }
  });
});

The template parameter can be manipulated as a string, or if you prefer, turn it into a jQuery object (var $t = $(template)) to find and replace content as desired. Just make sure you return a string (return $t.html())

From the example function above, you'll end up with something similar to this HTML (only the thead is shown)

<thead>
  <tr>
    <th class="tablesorter-header"><div class="tablesorter-header-inner"><em>1:</em> <i class="tablesorter-icon"></i>First Name</div></th>
    <th class="tablesorter-header"><div class="tablesorter-header-inner"><em>2:</em> <i class="tablesorter-icon"></i>Last Name</div></th>
  </tr>
</thead>

* Note: If the cssIcon option is an empty string, the {icon} tag will also become an empty string.

You can change this, but the table will still need the required thead and tbody before this plugin will work properly.
Added > to the selector in v2.3 to prevent targeting nested table headers. It was modified again in v2.4 to include td cells within the thead.

It was necessary to add this option because some widgets add table rows for styling (see the writing custom widgets demo) and if a table update is triggered ($('table').trigger('update');) those added rows will automatically become incorporated into the table.

Specifically, this option applies to the updateAll, update, addRows and updateCell methods and is checked after the method has completed updating the internal cache.

If false, the widgets will still be refreshed for all but the updateCell method - this behavior was added in v2.19.0.

Note when triggering one of the above methods, and passing a defined resort parameter, it will override this setting.
Note if a sort is not reapplied, problems with some widgets may occur, namely with the grouping widget.

NOTE Only when the user interacts with the table will the sortForce and sortAppend settings be applied. During initialization, and while setting the sortList through the API, both the sortForce and sortAppend settings are ignored. This will allow you to have explicit control over the sorting.

For example, sortForce: [[0,0]] will sort the first column in ascending order. After the forced sort, the user selected column(s), but not during initialzation, the sorting order defined in the sortList will follow. And lastly, the sort defined in the sortAppend option will be applied. More explicitly:

There are three options to determine the sort order and this is the order of priority:

1. sortForce forces the user to have this/these column(s) sorted first (null by default).
2. SortList is the initial sort order of the columns.
3. SortAppend is the default sort that is added to the end of the users sort selection (null by default; v2.24.0).

The value of these sort options is an array of arrays and can include one or more columns. The format is an array of instructions for per-column sorting and direction in the format: [[columnIndex, sortDirection], ... ] where columnIndex is a zero-based index for your columns left-to-right and sortDirection is 0 for Ascending and 1 for Descending. A valid argument that sorts ascending first by column 1 and then column 2 looks like: [[0,0],[1,0]].

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    sortForce  : [[0,0]],        // Always sort first column first
    sortList   : [[1,0], [2,0]], // initial sort columns (2nd and 3rd)
    sortAppend : [[3,0]]         // Always add this sort on the end (4th column)
  });
});

NOTE Only when the user interacts with the table will the sortForce and sortAppend settings be applied. During initialization, and while setting the sortList through the API, both the sortForce and sortAppend settings are ignored. This will allow you to have explicit control over the sorting.

The value contains an array of instructions for per-column sorting and direction in the format: [[columnIndex, sortDirection], ... ] where columnIndex is a zero-based index for your columns left-to-right and sortDirection is 0 for Ascending and 1 for Descending. A valid argument that sorts ascending first by column 1 and then column 2 looks like: [[0,0],[1,0]]. Please see sortForce for more details on other sort order options.

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    sortList : [[1,0], [2,0]] // initial sort columns (2nd and 3rd)
  });
});

This option can also be set using data-attributes (v2.3.1), jQuery data or metadata on the table:

** Note: data-sortlist data is not supported in jQuery versions older than 1.4.
jQuery data	<table data-sortlist="[[0,0],[4,0]]"> **
Meta data	<table class="tablesorter {sortlist: [[0,0],[4,0]]}">

NOTE Only when the user interacts with the table will the sortForce and sortAppend settings be applied. During initialization, and while setting the sortList through the API, both the sortForce and sortAppend settings are ignored. This will allow you to have explicit control over the sorting.

For example, can be used to sort people alphabetically after some other user-selected sort that results in rows with the same value like dates or money due. It can help prevent data from appearing as though it has a random secondary sort.

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    sortAppend : [[1,0], [2,0]] // always append sorting of 2nd and 3rd column
  });
});

The value contains an array of instructions for per-column sorting and direction in the format: [[columnIndex, sortDirection], ... ] where columnIndex is a zero-based index for your columns left-to-right and sortDirection is 0 for Ascending and 1 for Descending. A valid argument that sorts ascending first by column 1 and then column 2 looks like: [[0,0],[1,0]]. Please see sortForce for more details on other sort order options.

In v2.24.0, the sortAppend option now accepts an object containing column indexes.

Also, the sort direction can be set using "a" (ascending), "d" (descending), "n" (next), "s" (same) & "o" (opposite):

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    sortAppend: {
      0 : [[ 1,'a' ]], // always apply ascending sort
      2 : [[ 3,'o' ]], // sort "o"pposite of column 2 direction
      4 : [[ 5,'s' ], [ 0,'s' ]]  // sort "s"ame as column 4 direction
    }
  });
});

This order can also be set by desired column using the headers option (v2.0.8).

Individual columns can be modified by adding the following (they all do the same thing), set in order of priority (modified v2.3.1):

• jQuery data data-sortInitialOrder="asc".
• metadata class="{ sortInitialOrder: 'asc'}". This requires the metadata plugin.
• headers option headers : { 0 : { sortInitialOrder : 'asc' } }.
• header class name class="sortInitialOrder-asc".
• Overall sortInitialOrder option.

• This option no longer switches the sort to use the String.localeCompare method.
• When this option is true, the text parsed from table cells will convert accented characters to their equivalent to allow the alphanumeric sort to properly sort.
• If false (default), any accented characters are treated as their value in the standard unicode order.
• The following characters are replaced for both upper and lower case (information obtained from sugar.js sorting equivalents table):
  • áàâãä replaced with a
  • ç replaced with c
  • éèêë replaced with e
  • íìİîï replaced with i
  • óòôõöō replaced with o
  • úùûü replaced with u
  • ß replaced with S
• Please see the example page for instrcutions on how to modify the above equivalency table.
• If you would like to continue using the String.localeCompare method, then set the sortLocaleCompare option to false and use the new textSorter option as follows:

  $('table').tablesorter({
    textSorter: function(a,b) {
      return a.localeCompare(b);
    }
  });

NOTE! See the Language wiki page for language specific examples and how to extend the character equivalent tables seen in the sortLocaleCompare demo.

Boolean flag indicating whenever to use javascript String.localeCompare method or not.
This is only used when comparing text with international character strings. A sort using localeCompare will sort accented characters the same as their unaccented counterparts.

Don't confuse this option with the sortReset method. This option only resets the column sort after a third click, while the method immediately resets the entire table sort.

This isn't exactly a stable sort because the sort order maintains the original unsorted order when sorting the column in an ascending direction. When sorting the column in a descending order, the opposite of the original unsorted order is returned. If that doesn't make any sense, please refer to issue #419.

The other options include "ctrlKey" or "altKey" (reference)

To make a multisort always active, use any of the other event objects that are always "truthy" like "type" or "bubbles". See issue #1200).

String options was initially set in the header options only. Overall option added and values changed in version 2.1.16; setting the value to:

• "max" will treat any text in that column as a value greater than the max (more positive) value. Renamed from "max+".
• "min" will treat any text in that column as a value greater than the min (more negative) value. Renamed from "max-".
• "top" will always sort the text to the top of the column.
• "bottom" will always sort the text to the bottom of the column.
• "none" or "zero" will treat the text as if it has a value of zero.

Individual columns can be modified by adding the following (they all do the same thing), set in order of priority:

• jQuery data data-string="top".
• metadata class="{ string: 'top'}". This requires the metadata plugin.
• headers option headers : { 0 : { string : 'top' } }.
• header class name class="string-top".
• Overall stringTo option.

Changed to empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter" class will always be added to the table; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

This class was required in the default markup in version 2.0.5. But in version 2.0.6, it was added as an option.

Modify this option if you are not using the default css, or if you are using a completely custom stylesheet.

*NOTE* If creating a custom theme file, make sure to include a filter definition to hide filtered out rows:

.filtered { display: none; }

Note the .filtered class can be modified using the filter_filteredRow option.

When changing this theme option (the actual theme name is inside parentheses), make sure that the appropriate css theme file has also been loaded. Default theme files include: see all themes

---

uitheme widget

You will need to use the uitheme widget to extend the theme to apply css from jQuery UI, Bootstrap or other css libraries.

Modify a theme

If you want to modify the existing themes ("jui" and "bootstrap"), it can be done as follows:

Modify the class names by extending from the $.tablesorter.themes variable

Note there is no need to extend from the entire list of class names, just include the key:value pairs that are being changed:

// Extend a theme to modify any of the default class names
$.extend($.tablesorter.themes.jui, {
  // change default jQuery uitheme icons - find the full list of icons
  // here: http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/ (hover over them for their name)
  table        : 'ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-corner-all', // table classes
  caption      : 'ui-widget-content',
  // header class names
  header       : 'ui-widget-header ui-corner-all ui-state-default', // header classes
  sortNone     : '',
  sortAsc      : '',
  sortDesc     : '',
  active       : 'ui-state-active', // applied when column is sorted
  hover        : 'ui-state-hover',  // hover class
  // icon class names
  icons        : 'ui-icon', // icon class added to the <i> in the header
  iconSortNone : 'ui-icon-carat-2-n-s ui-icon-caret-2-n-s', // "caret" class renamed in jQuery v1.12.0
  iconSortAsc  : 'ui-icon-carat-1-n ui-icon-caret-1-n',
  iconSortDesc : 'ui-icon-carat-1-s ui-icon-caret-1-s',
  // other
  filterRow    : '',
  footerRow    : '',
  footerCells  : '',
  even         : 'ui-widget-content', // even row zebra striping
  odd          : 'ui-state-default'   // odd row zebra striping
});

Custom theme

To add a new uitheme, define it as follows (replace "custom" with the name of your theme):

$.tablesorter.themes.custom = {
  table      : 'table',       // table classes
  header     : 'header',      // header classes
  footerRow  : '',
  footerCells: '',
  icons      : 'icon',        // icon class added to the <i> in the header
  sortNone   : 'sort-none',   // unsorted header
  sortAsc    : 'sort-asc',    // ascending sorted header
  sortDesc   : 'sort-desc',   // descending sorted header
  active     : 'sort-active', // applied when column is sorted
  hover      : 'hover',       // hover class
  filterRow  : 'filters',     // class added to the filter row
  even       : 'even',        // even row zebra striping
  odd        : 'odd'          // odd row zebra striping
}

Then use it by adding the name of your theme to the theme option:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    // set the new theme name from $.tablesorter.themes here
    theme   : 'custom',
    // add {icon} to template (if needed)
    headerTemplate: '{content}{icon}',
    // make sure to initialize uitheme widget
    widgets : ["uitheme"]
  });
});

This option contains the name of the data-attribute used by the textExtraction function. Add it to the cell(s) as follows:

<td data-text="1">First repository</td>

Note This option only works when the textExtraction option is set to "basic".

*NOTE* It is important to know that the filter widget is set to use extracted (parsed) content as a parsed value and the raw cell content as unparsed values; and most of the time the filter widget is searching unparsed content. But, when a data-attribute is used, both the parsed and raw cached data will contain the exact same content (ref)!

* Note This option accepts multiple types (String, Object or Function); see below for further details.

In v2.19.0, the code was further optimized. When set to "basic" (the default), the textExtraction code will check for data-attributes, otherwise, any other string value setting will skip the data-attribute value check; because of this change, there is a noticable lessening of initialization time in Internet Explorer.

In v2.17.0, the textExtraction column can also be referenced by using a jQuery selector (e.g. class name, id or column index) that points to a table header cell.

textExtraction : {
    // 'jQuery thead cell selector' : function ( new method )
    '.styled' : function(node, table, cellIndex) {
        return $(node).find('strong').text();
    },
    // columnIndex : function ( original method )
    2 : function(node, table, cellIndex) {
        return $(node).find('img').attr('title');
    }
}

Warning What won't work is if you try to target the header using a filtering selector that uses an index, e.g. "th:eq()", ":gt()", ":lt()", ":first", ":last", ":even" or ":odd", ":first-child", ":last-child", ":nth-child()", ":nth-last-child()", etc.

As of version 2.16.0,

• The default text extraction method has been renamed and updated to get data from a data-attribute (set by the textAttribute option).
• If you need to support older versions of IE, this may add a significant delay to the table initialization especially for large tables; in this case, set the textExtraction option to any name other than "basic".
• Also, this option can now be set using a data-attribute named "data-text-extraction" on the table.

You can customize the text extraction by writing your own text extraction function "myTextExtraction" which you define like:

var myTextExtraction = function(node, table, cellIndex) {
  // extract data from markup and return it
  // originally: return node.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].innerHTML;
  return $(node).find('selector').text();
}
$(function() {
  $("#myTable").tablesorter( { textExtraction: myTextExtraction } );
});

tablesorter will pass the current table cell object for you to parse and return. Thanks to Josh Nathanson for the examples; updated to a jQuery example by Rob G (Mottie).

Now if the text you are finding in the script above is say a number, then just include the headers sorter option to specify how to sort it. Also in this example, we will specify that the special textExtraction code is only needed for the second column (1 because we are using a zero-based index). All other columns will ignore this textExtraction function.

Added table and cellIndex variables to the textExtraction function in version 2.1.2 (this is not part of the original plugin).

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    textExtraction: {
      1: function(node, table, cellIndex) {
           return $(node).find("span:last").text();
      }
    },
    headers: {
      1: { sorter : "digit" }
    }
  });
});

The built-in option is "basic" (modified v2.16.0) which is the equivalent of doing this inside of the textExtraction function: $(node).text();.

Notes about this namespace option:

• If a namesspace is not defined, a (hopefully) unique random namespace will be generated.
• If defined, any "non-word" characters (anything not "a-z", "0-9" or "_") within the namespace will be removed.
• Added or not, the namespace will be saved with a leading period (e.g. ".myuniquetableid")

$(function() {
  $("#mytable").tablesorter({
    // if table id = "mytable", this namespace is saved as ".mytable"
    namespace : $('#mytable')[0].id;
  });
});

Here is an example:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    numberSorter : function(a, b, direction, maxColumnValue) {
      // direction; true = ascending; false = descending
      // maxColumnValue = the maximum value of that column (ignoring its sign)
      return a - b;
    }
  });
});

The direction parameter (boolean) is merely for informational purposes as the plugin automatically switches a and b depending on the sort direction ( i.e. there's no need to worry about reverse sorting, it's taken care of by the plugin ).

Change this option if want to change the click event that is bound to the table headers. Add multiple events separated by spaces.

Warning If this option is set to fire multiple events (e.g. 'mouseup pointerup'), sorting may be initialized twice in rapid succession and make it appear that nothing changed.

Change this option if you're using pointer events (or the pointer events polyfill). Add multiple events separated by spaces.

Warning If this option is set to fire multiple events (e.g. 'mousedown pointerdown'), sorting may be initialized twice in rapid succession and make it appear that nothing changed.

Change this option if you're using pointer events (or the pointer events polyfill). Add multiple events separated by spaces.

Warning If this option is set to fire multiple events (e.g. 'mouseup pointerup'), sorting may be initialized twice in rapid succession and make it appear that nothing changed.

Include a script like naturalSort.js as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    textSorter : naturalSort
  });
});

or use the localeCompare sort

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    // replace the OVERALL text sorter function
    textSorter: function(a, b, direction, columnIndex, table) {
      // direction: true = ascending; false = descending
      // columnIndex: zero-based index of the current table column being sorted
      // table: table DOM element (access options by using table.config)
      return a.localeCompare(b);
    }
  });
});

In v2.27.6, the textSorter option will allow setting a sorter per column index or class name (column indexes were added in v2.12):

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    textSorter : {
      // replace INDIVIDUAL COLUMN text sorter functions
      0 : function(a, b, direction, columnIndex, table) {
        // same as $.tablesorter.sortText (basic alphabetical sort)
        // direction: true = ascending; false = descending
        // columnIndex: zero-based index of the current table column being sorted
        // table: table DOM element (access options by using table.config)
        return a > b ? 1 : (a < b ? -1 : 0);
      },
      // same as the function in column 0 above (modified in v2.12)
      1 : $.tablesorter.sortText,
      // renamed v2.12 from $.tablesorter.sortText - performs natural sort
      '.nat-sort' : $.tablesorter.sortNatural,
      // alphanumeric sort from sugar v2.0+ (https://sugarjs.com/docs/#/Array/getOption)
      '.sugar-sort' : Sugar.Array.getOption('sortCollate')
    }
  });
});

The direction parameter (boolean) is merely for informational purposes as the plugin automatically switches a and b depending on the sort direction ( i.e. there's no need to worry about reverse sorting, it's taken care of by the plugin ).

true	U.S.	1,234,567.89
false	German: French:	1.234.567,89 1 234 567,89

Prior to v2.4, this option set pixel widths to added colgroups to fix the column widths. This is useful for the Pager companion.
Requires the jQuery dimension plugin to work. This is now part of the jQuery core.

Previously documented widget options widgetZebra, widgetColumns and widgetUitheme will be retained for backwards compatibility.

Use the widgetOptions option as follows, please note that each option is followed by a comma (except the last one):

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({

    // initialize a bunch of widgets (the order doesn't matter)
    widgets: ["zebra", "uitheme", "columns", "filter", "resizable", "stickyHeaders"],

    widgetOptions: {

      // *** COLUMNS WIDGET ***
      // change the default column class names primary is the 1st column
      // sorted, secondary is the 2nd, etc
      columns: [
        "primary",
        "secondary",
        "tertiary"
      ],

      // If true, the class names from the columns option will also be added
      // to the table tfoot
      columns_tfoot: true,

      // If true, the class names from the columns option will also be added
      // to the table thead
      columns_thead: true,

      // *** FILTER WIDGET ***
      // css class name added to the filter cell (string or array)
      filter_cellFilter: '',

      // If there are child rows in the table (rows with class name from
      // "cssChildRow" option) and this option is true and a match is found
      // anywhere in the child row, then it will make that row visible;
      // default is false
      filter_childRows: false,

      // ( filter_childRows must be true ) if true = search
      // child rows by column; false = search all child row text grouped
      filter_childByColumn: false,

      // if true, include matching child row siblings
      filter_childWithSibs: true,

      // if true, allows using '#:{query}' in AnyMatch searches
      // ( column:query )
      filter_columnAnyMatch: true,

      // If true, a filter will be added to the top of each table column.
      filter_columnFilters: true,

      // css class name added to the filter row & each input in the row
      // (tablesorter-filter is ALWAYS added)
      filter_cssFilter: '',

      // data attribute in the header cell that contains the default (initial)
      // filter value
      filter_defaultAttrib: 'data-value',

      // add a default column filter type "~{query}" to make fuzzy searches
      // default; "{q1} AND {q2}" to make all searches use a logical AND.
      filter_defaultFilter: {},

      // filters to exclude, per column
      filter_excludeFilter: {},

      // jQuery selector string (or jQuery object)
      // of external filters
      filter_external: '',

      // class added to filtered rows; needed by pager plugin
      filter_filteredRow: 'filtered',

      // ARIA-label added to filter input/select; {{label}} is replaced by
      // the column header "data-label" attribute, if it exists, or it uses the
      // column header text
      filter_filterLabel : 'Filter "{{label}}" column by...',

      // add custom filter elements to the filter row
      filter_formatter: null,

      // Customize the filter widget by adding a select dropdown with content,
      // custom options or custom filter functions;
      // see http://goo.gl/HQQLW for more details
      filter_functions: null,

      // hide filter row when table is empty
      filter_hideEmpty: true,

      // Set this option to true to hide the filter row initially. The row is
      // revealed by hovering over the filter row or giving any filter
      // input/select focus. In v2.26.6, a function can be used to set when
      // to hide the filter row.
      filter_hideFilters: false,

      // Set this option to false to keep the searches case sensitive
      filter_ignoreCase: true,

      // if true, search column content while the user types (with a delay)
      // or, set a minimum number of characters that must be present before
      // a search is initiated. In v2.27.3, this option can contain an
      // object with column indexes or classnames; "fallback" is used
      // for undefined columns
      filter_liveSearch: true,

      // global query settings ('exact' or 'match'); overridden by
      // "filter-match" or "filter-exact" class
      filter_matchType: {
        'input': 'exact',
        'select': 'exact'
      },

      // a header with a select dropdown & this class name will only show
      // available (visible) options within the drop down
      filter_onlyAvail: 'filter-onlyAvail',

      // default placeholder text (overridden by any header
      // "data-placeholder" setting)
      filter_placeholder: {
        search: '',
        select: ''
      },

      // jQuery selector string of an element used to reset the filters.
      filter_reset: null,

      // Reset filter input when the user presses escape
      // normalized across browsers
      filter_resetOnEsc: true,

      // Use the $.tablesorter.storage utility to save the most recent filters
      filter_saveFilters: false,

      // Delay in milliseconds before the filter widget starts searching;
      // This option prevents searching for every character while typing
      // and should make searching large tables faster.
      filter_searchDelay: 300,

      // allow searching through already filtered rows in special
      // circumstances; will speed up searching in large tables if true
      filter_searchFiltered: true,

      // include a function to return an array of values to be added to the
      // column filter select
      filter_selectSource: null,

      // filter_selectSource array text left of the separator is added to
      // the option value, right into the option text
      filter_selectSourceSeparator: '|',

      // Set this option to true if filtering is performed on the
      // server-side.
      filter_serversideFiltering: false,

      // Set this option to true to use the filter to find text from the
      // start of the column. So typing in "a" will find "albert" but not
      // "frank", both have a's; default is false
      filter_startsWith: false,

      // If true, ALL filter searches will only use parsed data. To only
      // use parsed data in specific columns, set this option to false
      // and add class name "filter-parsed" to the header
      filter_useParsedData: false,

      // *** RESIZABLE WIDGET ***
      // If this option is set to false, resized column widths will not
      // be saved. Previous saved values will be restored on page reload
      resizable: true,

      // If this option is set to true, a resizing anchor
      // will be included in the last column of the table
      resizable_addLastColumn: false,

      // If this option is set to true, the resizable handle will extend
      // into the table footer
      resizable_includeFooter: true,

      // Set this option to the starting & reset header widths
      resizable_widths: [],

      // Set this option to throttle the resizable events
      // set to true (5ms) or any number 0-10 range
      resizable_throttle: false,

      // When true, the last column will be targeted for resizing,
      // which is the same has holding the shift and resizing a column
      resizable_targetLast: false,

      // *** SAVESORT WIDGET ***
      // If this option is set to false, new sorts will not be saved.
      // Any previous saved sort will be restored on page reload.
      saveSort: true,

      // *** STICKYHEADERS WIDGET ***
      // stickyHeaders widget: extra class name added to the sticky header
      // row
      stickyHeaders: '',

      // jQuery selector or object to append sticky headers to
      stickyHeaders_appendTo: null,

      // jQuery selector or object to attach sticky headers scroll listener to
      // overridden by xScroll & yScroll settings
      stickyHeaders_attachTo: null,

      // jQuery selector or object to monitor horizontal scroll position
      // (defaults: xScroll > attachTo > window)
      stickyHeaders_xScroll: null,

      // jQuery selector or object to monitor vertical scroll position
      // (defaults: yScroll > attachTo > window)
      stickyHeaders_yScroll: null,

      // number or jquery selector targeting the position:fixed element
      stickyHeaders_offset: 0,

      // scroll table top into view after filtering
      stickyHeaders_filteredToTop: true,

      // added to table ID, if it exists
      stickyHeaders_cloneId: '-sticky',

      // trigger "resize" event on headers
      stickyHeaders_addResizeEvent: true,

      // if false and a caption exist, it won't be included in the
      // sticky header
      stickyHeaders_includeCaption: true,

      // The zIndex of the stickyHeaders, allows the user to adjust this
      // to their needs
      stickyHeaders_zIndex: 2,

      // *** STORAGE WIDGET ***
      // set storage type; this overrides any storage_useSessionStorage setting
      // use the first letter of (l)ocal, (s)ession or (c)ookie
      storage_storageType: '',
      // DEPRECATED: allows switching between using local & session storage
      storage_useSessionStorage: false,
      // alternate table id (set if grouping multiple tables together)
      storage_tableId: '',
      // table attribute to get the table ID, if storage_tableId
      // is undefined
      storage_group: '', // defaults to "data-table-group"
      // alternate url to use (set if grouping tables across
      // multiple pages)
      storage_fixedUrl: '',
      // table attribute to get the fixedUrl, if storage_fixedUrl
      // is undefined
      storage_page: '',

      // *** ZEBRA WIDGET ***
      // class names to add to alternating rows
      // [ "even", "odd" ]
      zebra: [
        "even",
        "odd"
      ]

    }

  });
});

When using the checkbox parser, this class name is added to the row along with this class name plus the column index when the targeted checkbox is checked.

For example, if the named parser file has been loaded & "sorter-checkbox" class is added to the first column header, then any checked checkbox in the first column will have "checked checked-0" class names added to the row.

Checkboxes in any other column, not targeted by the parser, will be ignored and no extra row class names will be added.

When using the checkbox parser, this setting is used when a checkbox inside a header cell is changed; if true, only same column checkboxes within visible rows are modified to match the header checkbox.

If false, same column checkboxes in all rows are modified to match the status of the header checkbox.

This option is meant to be used with the jQuery Globalize library along with CLDR data.

See the Globalization section in the group widget demo for details on how to set it up.

Currently, the globalize (parser-globalize.js), month (parser-date-month.js) & weekday (parser-date-weekday.js) parsers utilize this option.

$(function() {
  $('table').tablesorter({
    // globalize : { lang: 'en' } // for ALL columns
    // or, per column by using the column index
    globalize : {
      0 : { lang: 'fr', Globalize : Globalize('fr'), raw: 'MMM d, y G' },
      2 : { lang: 'fr' }
    }
  });
});

Change this setting to ignore input, textarea and select changes inside of child rows:

$(function() {
  $('table').tablesorter({
    ignoreChildRow : true
  });
});

See pull request #1399 for more information.

Change this setting to grab a different image attribute to be used for sorting:

$(function() {
  $('table').tablesorter({
    // parse image title (value to be used while sorting & filtering)
    imgAttr : 'title',
    headers : {
      0 : { sorter: 'image' } // this parser is auto-detected, but will only work on the first image
    }
  });
});

This option was added to set a specific page when storing data using the $.tablesorter.storage code (v2.12).
More specifically, when the storage function is used, it attempts to give every table a unique identifier using both the page url and table ID (or index on the page if no id exists). This option allows you to override the current page url (it doesn't need to be a url, just some constant value) and save data for multiple tables across a domain.

The table url & id can also be overridden by setting table data attributes data-table-page (url) and data-table-group (id)
(e.g. <table class="tablesorter" data-table-page="mydomain" data-table-group="financial">...</table>)

For a bit more detail, specifically on how to use the new storage function options for a custom widget, please refer to issue #389.

This option was not working as intended, so it was completely removed - sorry for the lack of notice.

Previous default was "tablesorter-allowClicks"

Class name added to table header which allows clicks to bubble up. (added v2.18.1; removed in v2.20.0).

Default value: { css: [ "primary", "secondary", "tertiary" ] } (Object with Array)

When the column styling widget is initialized, it automatically applied the default class names of "primary" for the primary sort, "secondary" for the next sort, "tertiary" for the next sort, and so on (add more as needed)... (v2.0.17). Use the widgetColumns option to change the css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["columns"], // initialize column styling of the table
    widgetColumns: { css: ["primary", "secondary", "tertiary" ] }
  });
});

Default value: { css: [ "ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s", "ui-icon-arrowthick-1-s", "ui-icon-arrowthick-1-n" ] } (Object with Array)

Used when the ui theme styling widget is initialized. It automatically applies the default class names of "ui-icon-arrowthick-2-n-s" for the unsorted column, "ui-icon-arrowthick-1-s" for the descending sort and "ui-icon-arrowthick-1-n" for the ascending sort. (v2.0.9). Find more jQuery UI class names by hovering over the Framework icons on this page: http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/

Use the widgetUitheme option to change the css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["uitheme"], // initialize ui theme styling widget of the table
    widgetUitheme: {
      css: [
        "ui-icon-carat-2-n-s", // Unsorted icon
        "ui-icon-carat-1-s",   // Sort up (down arrow)
        "ui-icon-carat-1-n"    // Sort down (up arrow)
      ]
    }
  });
});

Default value: { css: [ "even", "odd" ] } (Object with Array)

When the zebra striping widget is initialized, it automatically applied the default class names of "even" and "odd". Use the widgetZebra option to change the css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["zebra"], // initialize zebra striping of the table
    widgetZebra: { css: [ "normal-row", "alt-row" ] }
  });
});

Use the "columns" option to change the css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["columns"], // initialize column styling of the table
    widgetOptions : {
      columns: [ "primary", "secondary", "tertiary" ]
    }
  });
});

Use the "columns_thead" option to add the column class names to the thead as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["columns"], // initialize column styling of the table
    widgetOptions : {
      columns_thead: true
    }
  });
});

Use the "columns_tfoot" option to add the column class names to the tfoot as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["columns"], // initialize column styling of the table
    widgetOptions : {
      columns_tfoot: true
    }
  });
});

*NOTE* When using this option, please be aware that all child row content will be obtained from each table cell using textContent, so none of the markup will be preserved. Also, carriage returns (<br>) will not be included. To account for the loss of white space, especially after carriage returns, please add an extra space to the end of the line. Using innerText, could have been an option for preserving the white space, but it is not standardized across all browsers (ref).

Use the filter_childRows option to include child row text as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      filter_childRows : true
    }
  });
});

The filter_childRows option must also be true for this option to work.

If false, and the filter_childRows option is true, then queries in any column will search all child content, as before this option was added.

Use the filter_childByColumn option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      filter_childRows : true,
      filter_childByColumn : true
    }
  });
});

Both filter_childRows & filter_childByColumn options must be set to true for this option to work.

If false, this option will only show the child row that matches the filter; and its parent row.

Use the filter_childWithSibs option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: [ "filter" ],
    widgetOptions : {
      filter_childRows     : true,
      filter_childByColumn : true,
      // only show matching child row & parent
      filter_childWithSibs : false
    }
  });
});

Users can use the anymatch input to target a specific column, using a one-based index.

For example: In the table below, searching for 2:aa in an anymatch filter will result in "Phillip Aaron Wong" and "Aaron" showing in the First Name column.

See live examples in the Filter Widget External Search demo.

Use the filter_columnFilters option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      filter_columnFilters : true
    }
  });
});

When the filter row is built, each table cell (<td>) will get the class name from this option.

• If this option is a plain string, all filter row cells will get the text applied as a class name.

  // "table-filter-cell" class added to all filter row td's
  filter_cellFilter : 'table-filter-cell'

• If this option is an array, then each filter row cell will get the text from the associate array element applied as a class name.

  .hidden { display: none; }

  // hiding second & fourth columns using associated css
  filter_cellFilter : [ '', 'hidden', '', 'hidden' ]

Use the filter_cellFilter option to add an extra css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      // css class applied to the table row containing the filters & the inputs within that row
      // or [ "filter-cell0", "filter-cell1", "filter-cell2", etc... ]
      filter_cellFilter : "tablesorter-filter-cell"
    }
  });
});

Note The cells from this option are also contained within the config.$filters variable.

As of v2.15, this option can also contain an array of class names that are to be applied to input filters.

Changed default to an empty string in v2.11, as the "tablesorter-filter" class will always be added to the filter; this option now contains any additional class names to add.

Use the filter_cssFilter option to add an extra css class name as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      // css class applied to the table row containing the filters & the inputs within that row
      // or [ "filter0", "filter1", "filter2", etc... ]
      filter_cssFilter : "tablesorter-filter"
    }
  });
});

Warning If a column has a default filter set, the user will not be able to use other filters.

Use the filter_defaultFilter option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {

      filter_defaultFilter : {
        // target a column by class name or column index (zero-based)

        '.fuzzy' : '~{q}',
        2 : '{q}=',

        // for default "anyMatches" use the column length as the index
        // e.g. if your table has 5 columns (0,1,2,3,4), then set the anyMatch column as 5.
        5 : '{q} or {q}' // any match column
      }

    }
  });
});

Set up the column string as follows:

• Add the desired filter type symbol along with {query} or {q} to maintain positioning
• Symbols can be added to the beginning "~{query}" (default fuzzy search) or end "{q}=" (default exact search)
• For symbols that separate queries, like "AND", "OR" or "-" (range):
  • Add one additional {q} tag.
  • For example, to add a default "OR" search, use "{q} OR {q}".
  • If the user enters "a b c d" the column will be filtered using "a OR b OR c OR d", so there is no need to add more {q} tags within the string; adding more will likely mess up the results.
  • If the user only enters "a", then the column will be filtered using "a OR a" so as not to cause other issues.
• Note It is not possible to set up a default filter search within a query. So the "wild" filter search will not work as intended (e.g. {q}* and {q}? are essentially the same as {q}.

Use the filter_excludeFilter option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {

      filter_excludeFilter : {
        // target a column by class name or column index (zero-based)
        '.title' : 'range',

        // separate multiple filter types using spaces
        2 : 'range notMatch exact'
      }

    }
  });
});

Exclusion names must be separated by a comma. Here is a full list of filter type names:

• and - logical AND type filter (using foo AND bar or foo && bar).
• or - logical OR type filter (using foo OR bar or foo|bar).
• exact - exact match (using " or =).
• fuzzy - fuzzy match (~)
• notMatch - not match (! or !=)
• operators - comparison filters (< <= >= >)
• range - range ( - or to )
• regex - regex (/\d/)
• wild - wild card matching (? for single characters, * for multiple characters not including spaces, or | or OR for a logical OR (the "or" filter type was separated from "wild" in v2.22.2).

Set this option to be a jQuery selector string, or jQuery object, pointing to any external inputs that are to be used for searching the table.

Use the filter_external option as follows:

$(function() {
  $("table").tablesorter({
    widgets: ["filter"],
    widgetOptions : {
      filter_external : '.search'
    }
  });
});

These external inputs have one requirement, they must have a data-column="#", where the # targets the column (zero-based index), pointing to a specific column to search.

<input class="search" type="search" data-column="0" placeholder="Search first column">

If you want to search all columns, using the updated "any match" method, set the data column value to "all":

<input class="search" type="search" data-column="all" placeholder="Search entire table">

The updated any matching code will now automatically update all associated inputs with the latest search.
This option replaces filter_anyMatch.

*NOTE* If creating a custom theme, make sure to include this definition (set to display:none or the filter widget will appear to be broken!

By default, a {{label}} is included in the setting to insert a column label. The content is obtained from the header cell's data-label attribute (do not include the data- prefix), if it exists, or the column header text. See the "First Name" column on the example page.

More complex labels may be included by adding multiple "data-attributes". For example, the following option:

filter_filterLabel : 'Filter the {{column-name}}, the {{ordinal-number}} column{{label-extra}}{{default-filter}}'

with this header cell HTML

<th data-column-name="last name" data-ordinal-number="second" data-default-filter=", using a fuzzy search" data-label-extra="">
  Last
<th>

would result in an ARIA-label of 'Filter the last name, the second column, using a fuzzy search'

Note:

• The data- prefix must not be added in the placeholders.
• The empty data-label-extra attribute did add any content to the resulting label.
• If an included data-attribute does not exist on the header, it will be replaced by the header text.

In v2.17.0, the filter_formatter column can also be referenced by using a jQuery selector (e.g. class name or ID) that points to a table header cell.

filter_formatter : {
    ".col-value" : function($cell, indx) {
      return $.tablesorter.filterFormatter.uiSpinner( $cell, indx, {
        ...
      });
    }
}

Warning What won't work is if you try to target the header using a filtering selector that uses an index, e.g. "th:eq()", ":gt()", ":lt()", ":first", ":last", ":even" or ":odd", ":first-child", ":last-child", ":nth-child()", ":nth-last-child()", etc.

A new file has been included named "widget-filter-formatter-jui.js" & "widget-filter-formatter-html5.js". The files include code to add jQuery UI and HTML5 controls via the filter_formatter option.

Most of the formatter functions have an option named valueToHeader which, when true adds a span to the header cell above the filter row and updates it with the current control's value (see example 2). If the option exists and is set to false, then the current value is added to the control's handle and css can be used to create a popup to show the current value (see example 1).

Another custom option named addToggle is included with the "uiSpinner", "html5Color" and "html5Number" code. This allows the user to disable the control to show all table rows. For the single sliders, "uiSlider" and "html5Range", the minimum value is used to clear the filter (show all rows).

The options included for each jQuery UI control only show basic options, but any or all of the jQuery UI options for that control can be included.

• To add the jQuery UI slider, follow this example:

  $(function() {
    $("table").tablesorter({
      widgets: ["filter"],
      widgetOptions : {
        filter_formatter : {
          // column index `0` or use a jQuery selector `"th:contains('Discount')"`
          0 : function($cell, indx) {
            return $.tablesorter.filterFormatter.uiSpinner( $cell, indx, {
              value : 0,  // starting value
              min   : 0,  // minimum value
              max   : 50, // maximum value
              step  : 1,  // increment value by
              addToggle: true, // Add a toggle to enable/disable the control
              valueToHeader: false // add current slider value to the header cell
            });
          }
        }
      }
    });
  });

  Any of the other jQuery UI spinner widget options can also be included.
  
  
• Filter formatter functions include: "uiSpinner", "uiSlider", "uiRange" (uiSlider ranged), "uiDatepicker" (range only), "html5Number", "html5Range" and "html5Color".
• For other examples, please refer to the example pages. Formatter part 1 (example 1) adds jQuery UI controls to the filter row, while formatter part 2 (example 2) adds HTML5 controls, if supported, to the filter row.

In v2.22.0, a data parameter was added to that long list of parameters.

*WARNING* In a future update, the filter function parameters will be cleaned up and changed as follows!

filter_functions : {
  // function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) {} <- current parameters
  0 : function(c, data) {} // planned change (version undetermined)
}

The e (exact table cell text), n (normalized table cell text), f (filter input value), i (column index) and $r (current row; jQuery object) are all already included in the data object.

In v2.17.0, the filter_functions column can also be referenced by using a jQuery selector (e.g. class name or ID) that points to a table header cell.

filter_functions : {
    ".col-date" : {
        "< 2004" : function (e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) {
            return n < Date.UTC(2004, 0, 1); // < Jan 1 2004
        },
        ...
    }
}

Warning What won't work is if you try to target the header using a filtering selector that uses an index, e.g. "th:eq()", ":gt()", ":lt()", ":first", ":last", ":even" or ":odd", ":first-child", ":last-child", ":nth-child()", ":nth-last-child()", etc.

Use the "filter_functions" option in three different ways:

• Make a sorted select dropdown list of all column contents. Repeated content will be combined.

  $(function() {
    $("table").tablesorter({
      widgets: ["filter"],
      widgetOptions: {
        filter_functions: {
          // Add select menu to this column
          // set the column value to true, and/or add "filter-select" class name to header
          0 : true
        }
      }
    });
  });

  Alternately, instead of setting the column filter funtion to true, give the column header a class name of "filter-select". See the demo.
  
  
• Make a select dropdown list with custom option settings. Each option must have a corresponding function which returns a boolean value; return true if there is a match, or false with no match.

  Regex example

  $(function() {
    $("table").tablesorter({
      widgets: ["filter"],
      widgetOptions: {
        // function variables:
        // e = exact text from cell
        // n = normalized value returned by the column parser
        // f = search filter input value
        // i = column index
        // $r = jQuery element of current row
        // c = table.config
        // data = combined filter data - see filter widget "custom searches" demo, look under "How to add Custom filter types"
        filter_functions: {
          // Add these options to the select dropdown (regex example)
          2 : {
            "A - D" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[A-D]/.test(e); },
            "E - H" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[E-H]/.test(e); },
            "I - L" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[I-L]/.test(e); },
            "M - P" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[M-P]/.test(e); },
            "Q - T" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[Q-T]/.test(e); },
            "U - X" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[U-X]/.test(e); },
            "Y - Z" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return /^[Y-Z]/.test(e); }
          }
        }
      }
    });
  });

  Comparison example

  $(function() {
    $("table").tablesorter({
      widgets: ["filter"],
      widgetOptions: {
        // function variables:
        // e = exact text from cell
        // n = normalized value returned by the column parser
        // f = search filter input value
        // i = column index
        // $r = jQuery element of current row
        // c = table.config
        // data = combined filter data - see filter widget "custom searches" demo, look under "How to add Custom filter types"
        filter_functions: {
          // Add these options to the select dropdown (numerical comparison example)
          // Note that only the normalized (n) value will contain numerical data
          // If you use the exact text, you'll need to parse it (parseFloat or parseInt)
          4 : {
            "< $10"      : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return n < 10; },
            "$10 - $100" : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return n >= 10 && n <=100; },
            "> $100"     : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) { return n > 100; }
          }
        }
      }
    });
  });

  Note: if the filter_ignoreCase option is true, it DOES alter the normalized value (n) by making it all lower case.
  
  
• Make a custom filter for the column.

  $(function() {
    $("table").tablesorter({
      widgets: ["filter"],
      widgetOptions: {
        // function variables:
        // e = exact text from cell
        // n = normalized value returned by the column parser
        // f = search filter input value
        // i = column index
        // $r = jQuery element of current row
        // c = table.config
        // data = combined filter data - see filter widget "custom searches" demo, look under "How to add Custom filter types"
        filter_functions: {
          // Exact match only
          1 : function(e, n, f, i, $r, c, data) {
            return e === f;
          }
        }
      }
    });
  });

  Note: if the filter_ignoreCase option is true, it DOES alter the normalized value (n) by making it all lower case.