Reusable Numeric Sort Method for Flex DataGrid Columns

I can’t take full credit for this since I found some version of this function out there somewhere, but since it’s not that easy to find I thought I’d repost it.

If you need to numerically sort multiple columns in a DataGrid without creating a separate method for each based on its dataField, then use this:

/** * Numerically sorts a column in the DataGrid. * * @param	fieldName	The string name for the dataField in the column that you want to sort. */private function numericSortByField(fieldName:String):Function{	return function(obj1:Object, obj2:Object):int	{		var value1:Number = (obj1[fieldName] == '' || obj1[fieldName] == null) ? null : new Number(obj1[fieldName]);		var value2:Number = (obj2[fieldName] == '' || obj2[fieldName] == null) ? null : new Number(obj2[fieldName]);		return ObjectUtil.numericCompare(value1, value2);	}}

By default, the DataGrid’s sort converts your data to strings so this ensures it’s really doing a numeric sort (and is a generic one at that).

Finish it off by making sure to set the sortCompareFunction for your columns like so:

myColumn.sortCompareFunction = this.numericSortByField("myDataField");

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