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dhtmlxGrid - Sort on Hidden Column

I have previously asked if it's possible to sort data on a column that is hidden.
So I click on (visible) Column X in a grid and it sorts the rows according to data in (hidden) Column Y.
The answer I got was as follows (where X and Y are replaced by the relevant column indexes):

grid.attachEvent("onHeaderClick",function(ind){
if (ind == X){
grid.sortRows(Y,"str","asc");
return false;
}
return true;
});

There are a couple of issues with this solution.
Firstly, it always sorts in ascending order due to the hardcoded 3rd parameter in the sortRows call.
I realise that this was an example but how can I tell what the current sort order is for a particular column?
Once I know that, I can then toggle it ("asc"->"des" and "des"->"asc") and pass this as the 3rd parameter.

However, what I have found is when the data is sorted, the direction indicator image is not displayed in the Column Header.
I think this is down to the return false after the call to grid.sortRows.
I think it might be missing some further code down the line because when I return true, the image comes back - but the sorting on the hidden column is overwritten.

By the way, this has all come about because I cannot get "date" sorting to work!!
I saw another KB article somewhere saying that date sorting occurs using the standard javascript Date.Parse function.
It said that this requires that the date is in MM/DD/YYYY format.
My data is in DD/MM/YYYY format - standard UK date format.
Would this be the cause of "date" sorting to not work?

If the above method does not work, how can I modify the standard "date" sorting so that it works with DD/MM/YYYY dates.
I cannot use custom sorting because I am using the Standard edition.

I see there is a setDateFormat function available in the Pro edition.
Does this allow the grid to hold the physical data in one format but to display it formatted?

Please check http://dhtmlx.com/docs/products/kb/index.shtml?cat=recent&q=1182
which covers part of your questions

>>If the above method does not work, how can I modify the standard "date" sorting so that it works with DD/MM/YYYY dates.
In code of dhtmlxgrid there are next two rows

            var aVal = Date.parse(arrTS[a.idd])||(Date.parse("01/01/1900"));
            var bVal = Date.parse(arrTS[b.idd])||(Date.parse("01/01/1900"));

those two lines are date parsing for sorting, you may replace it with any other code which will create comparable objects (int, string, etc ) from your data


>>I see there is a setDateFormat function available in the Pro edition.
>>Does this allow the grid to hold the physical data in one format but to display it formatted?

This can be applied for date based excell only ( limited support for "calendar" excell and pretty rich date formating support for "dhxCalendar" excell )