Sort Null Dates at the Bottom of the Grid

Environment

Product Version	2022.2.621
Product	Progress® Kendo UI® Grid for jQuery

Description

How can I force the rows with null to appear at the end of the Grid?

Solution

Use a compare function to apply custom sorting to the data.

You can apply the compare function to both:

• The DataSource sort configuration in order to have the data sorted initially.
• The Grid columns.sortable configuration to allow the end-user to sort the dates by clicking on the Grid headers.

You can use the approach from the following StackOverflow answer in order to sort the null dates at the bottom.

The following example demonstrates how to make the rows with null dates appear last.

    <div id="grid"></div>

    <script>
      function customDateCompare(a, b, desc) {
        const distantFuture = new Date(8640000000000000);
        let dateA = a.OrderDate ? new Date(a.OrderDate) : distantFuture,
            dateB = b.OrderDate ? new Date(b.OrderDate) : distantFuture;

        // In desc order.
        if(desc){
          // If both dates exist, use the default sorting algorithm.
          if(a.OrderDate && b.OrderDate) {
            return dateA.getTime() - dateB.getTime();
          }

          // If one of the dates is null, reverse the calculation so the date is moved to the bottom.
          return dateB.getTime() - dateA.getTime();
        }

        // In asc order.
        // Use the default sorting.
        return dateA.getTime() - dateB.getTime();
      }

      $(document).ready(function () {
        $("#grid").kendoGrid({
          dataSource: {
            data: getData(),
            pageSize: 6,
            sort: [
              { 
                field: "OrderDate", 
                dir: "desc", 
                compare: customDateCompare
              }
            ],
          },
          sortable: true,
          pageable: {
            buttonCount: 5
          },
          scrollable: false,
          columns: [
            {
              field: "ShipCountry",
              title: "Ship Country",
              width: 300
            },
            {
              field: "Freight",
              width: 300
            },
            {
              field: "OrderDate",
              title: "Order Date",
              format: "{0:dd/MM/yyyy}",
              sortable: {
                allowUnsort: false,
                compare: customDateCompare
              }
            }

          ]
        });

        function getData(){
          return [
            {
              OrderID : 10248,
              OrderDate : new Date(1996, 6, 10, 0, 0, 0, 0),
              ShipVia : 3,
              Freight : 32.3800,
              ShipCountry : "France"
            }, {
              OrderID : 10249,
              OrderDate : null,
              Freight : 11.6100,
              ShipCountry : "Germany"
            }, {
              OrderID : 10250,
              OrderDate : new Date(1996, 6, 8, 0, 0, 0, 0),
              Freight : 65.8300,
              ShipCountry : "Brazil"
            }, {
              OrderID : 10251,
              OrderDate : null,
              Freight : 41.3400,
              ShipCountry : "France"
            }, {
              OrderID : 10252,
              OrderDate : new Date(1996, 6, 9, 0, 0, 0, 0),
              ShipVia : 2,
              Freight : 51.3000,
              ShipCountry : "Belgium"
            }

          ];
        }

      });
    </script>