Web Components Grid Sorting

The Ignite UI for Web Components Data Sorting feature in Web Components Grid is enabled on a per-column level, meaning that the IgcGridComponent can have a mix of sortable and non-sortable columns. Performing Web Components sort actions enables you to change the display order of the records based on specified criteria.

Web Components Grid Sorting Overview Example

This is done via the sortable input. With the IgcGridComponent sorting, you can also set the sortingIgnoreCase property to perform case sensitive sorting:

<igc-column field="ProductName" header="Product Name" data-type="string" sortable="true"></igc-column>

Sorting Indicators

Having a certain amount of sorted columns could be really confusing if there is no indication of the sorted order.

The IgcGridComponent provides a solution for this problem by indicating the index of each sorted column.

Sorting through the API

You can sort any column or a combination of columns through the IgcGridComponent API using the IgcGridComponent sort method:

import { SortingDirection } from 'igniteui-webcomponents-grids';


// Perform a case insensitive ascending sort on the ProductName column.
this.grid.sort([{ fieldName: 'ProductName', dir: SortingDirection.Asc, ignoreCase: true }]);

// Perform sorting on both the ProductName and Price columns.
this.grid.sort([
    { fieldName: 'ProductName', dir: SortingDirection.Asc, ignoreCase: true },
    { fieldName: 'Price', dir: SortingDirection.Desc }
]);

[!Note] Sorting is performed using our DefaultSortingStrategy algorithm. Any IgcColumnComponent or ISortingExpression can use a custom implementation of the ISortingStrategy as a substitute algorithm. This is useful when custom sorting needs to be defined for complex template columns, or image columns, for example.

As with the filtering behavior, you can clear the sorting state by using the clearSort method:

// Removes the sorting state from the ProductName column
this.grid.clearSort('ProductName');

// Removes the sorting state from every column in the Grid
this.grid.clearSort();

[!Note] The sortStrategy of the IgcGridComponent is of different type compared to the sortStrategy of the IgcColumnComponent, since they work in different scopes and expose different parameters.

[!Note] The sorting operation DOES NOT change the underlying data source of the IgcGridComponent.

Initial Sorting State

It is possible to set the initial sorting state of the IgcGridComponent by passing an array of sorting expressions to the sortingExpressions property of the IgcGridComponent.

public connectedCallback() {
    this.grid.sortingExpressions = [
        { fieldName: 'ProductName', dir: SortingDirection.Asc, ignoreCase: true },
        { fieldName: 'Price', dir: SortingDirection.Desc }
    ];
}

[!Note] If values of type string are used by a column of dataType Date, the IgcGridComponent won't parse them to Date objects and using IgcGridComponent Sorting won't work as expected. If you want to use string objects, additional logic should be implemented on an application level, in order to parse the values to Date objects.

Sorting Indicators Templates

The sorting indicator icon in the column header can be customized using a template. The following properties are available for templating the sorting indicator for any sorting state (ascending, descending, none):

sortHeaderIconTemplate – re-templates the sorting icon when no sorting is applied.

constructor() {
    var grid = this.grid = document.getElementById('grid') as IgcGridComponent;
    grid.data = this.data;
    grid.sortHeaderIconTemplate = this.sortHeaderIconTemplate;
}

public sortHeaderIconTemplate = (ctx: IgcGridHeaderTemplateContext) => {
    return html`<igc-icon name="unfold_more"></igc-icon>`;
}

sortAscendingHeaderIconTemplate – re-templates the sorting icon when the column is sorted in ascending order.

constructor() {
    var grid = this.grid = document.getElementById('grid') as IgcGridComponent;
    grid.data = this.data;
    grid.sortAscendingHeaderIconTemplate = this.sortAscendingHeaderIconTemplate;
}

public sortAscendingHeaderIconTemplate = (ctx: IgcGridHeaderTemplateContext) => {
    return html`<igc-icon name="expand_less"></igc-icon>`;
}

sortDescendingHeaderIconTemplate – re-templates the sorting icon when the column is sorted in descending order.

constructor() {
    var grid = this.grid = document.getElementById('grid') as IgcGridComponent;
    grid.data = this.data;
    grid.sortDescendingHeaderIconTemplate = this.sortDescendingHeaderIconTemplate;
}

public sortDescendingHeaderIconTemplate = (ctx: IgcGridHeaderTemplateContext) => {
    return html`<igc-icon name="expand_more"></igc-icon>`;
}

Styling

In addition to the predefined themes, the grid could be further customized by setting some of the available CSS properties. In case you would like to change some of the colors, you need to set a class for the grid first:

<igc-grid class="grid">
</igc-grid>

Then set the related CSS properties to this class:

.grid {
    --ig-grid-sorted-header-icon-color: #ffb06a;
    --ig-grid-sortable-header-icon-hover-color: black;
}

Web Components Grid Sorting