Sorting a table in asp.net MVC

Question

I was wondering how people were going about sorting a table in asp.net mvc? I\'ve heard of javascript solutions that work pretty well with non-paged tables, such as jquery\'s ta

Answer 1

Definately liking Jan's solution - thanks a lot Jan... You just saved me some 60 lines of code with a case statement parsing each of the column headers. The solution "makes a great toggle click, only sort by 1 column solution on tables", when used with two session variables, one to retain the ASC/DESC as a boolean and one to hold the Type/Column Name.

I used this C# Example Extension and implemented it with VB this afternoon. I managed to cut a 30 line case statement into one line of code.

AT THE VIEW:

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THE EXTENSION (Public Module OrderByExtender):

Imports System.Linq.Expressions

Public Function OrderBy(Of T)(collection As IEnumerable(Of T), key As String, isDescending As Boolean) As IOrderedEnumerable(Of T)
    Dim sortLambda As LambdaExpression = BuildLambda(Of T)(key)
    If isDescending Then
        Return collection.OrderByDescending(DirectCast(sortLambda.Compile(), Func(Of T, Object)))
    Else
        Return collection.OrderBy(DirectCast(sortLambda.Compile(), Func(Of T, Object)))
    End If
End Function

Public Function ThenBy(Of T)(collection As IOrderedEnumerable(Of T), key As String, isDescending As Boolean) As IOrderedEnumerable(Of T)
    Dim sortLambda As LambdaExpression = BuildLambda(Of T)(key)

    If (isDescending) Then
        Return collection.ThenByDescending(DirectCast(sortLambda.Compile(), Func(Of T, Object)))
    Else
        Return collection.ThenBy(DirectCast(sortLambda.Compile(), Func(Of T, Object)))
    End If
End Function

Private Function BuildLambda(Of T)(key As String) As LambdaExpression
    Dim TParameterExpression As ParameterExpression = Expression.Parameter(GetType(T), "p")
    Dim sortLambda As LambdaExpression = Expression.Lambda(Expression.Convert(Expression.[Property](TParameterExpression, key), GetType(Object)), TParameterExpression)
    Return sortLambda
End Function

AT THE CONTROLLER ACTION:

Public Function SortStationVisits(Optional page As Integer = 1, Optional SortField As String = "") As ActionResult
    Dim sps = LoadSession()

    If SortField = sps.StationVisitSorter Then
        sps.StationVisitDescOrder = Not (sps.StationVisitDescOrder)
    Else
        sps.StationVisitDescOrder = False
    End If

    sps.StationVisitSorter = SortField

    SaveSession(sps)
    Return RedirectToAction("Show")
End Function

AT THE CONTROLLER SHOW METHOD (1 line of code W00T!) :

spv.SelectableStationVisits = spv.SelectableStationVisits.OrderBy(sps.StationVisitSorter, sps.StationVisitDescOrder).ToList