View source for Controlling output order

{{DPL manual|section=Parameters|subsection=Controlling output order}}
{{tocright}}


DPL3 allows you to define the sort order of its output, as is explained below. 

==ordermethod==

{{DPL Parameter
 |name   = ordermethod
 |purpose= Sets the criteria used to order the list by; often combined with <code>{{DPL|order}}{{=}}''descending''</code> for descending sort (otherwise ''ascending'' is default); or, alternatively, may be combined with <code>{{DPL|headingmode}}</code>.
}}


'''Syntax:'''

<code>ordermethod=<i>method1,method2,...</i></code> ordered by ''method1'' first, then by ''method2'', etc., (like the [https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_orderby.asp ORDER BY] clause in SQL).


'''''methodN''''' can be one of the following '''single''' values (which will be sorted in ''ascending'' order by default, see <code>{{DPL|order}}</code>):

{| class="wikitable" style="max-width:1200px;"
! Method
! Description
|-
|'''''categoryadd'''''
|Orders list based on the most recent addition to the category specified (requires the 'category' parameter, only one category can be included to work).
{{note|See '''''sortkey''''' for sorting by page order in a category.}}
|-
|'''''counter'''''
|Orders list based on the number of times the page has been viewed (by ~popularity). 
{{note|'''Note:''' Requires the [[mw:Extension:HitCounters|HitCounters]] extension for wikis on MediaWiki 1.25.0 or higher since the counter feature was removed<ref>[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDisableCounters Manual:$wgDisableCounters]</ref>; this extension is not yet available on Miraheze wikis.}}
|-
|'''''size'''''
|Orders list based on the size of the article (bytes of wiki text).
|-
|'''''firstedit'''''
|Orders list based on first edit to the pages (creation).
|-
|'''''lastedit'''''
|Orders list based on the most recent edit to the pages.
|-
|'''''pagetouched'''''
|Orders list based on 'page_touched' timestamp. Read the comment on the page_touched field in [[mw:Page_table|Page_table]] to see the difference from most recent edit by an author.
|-
|'''''pagesel'''''
|Orders list based on the names of the reference pages which are used in the selection of a <code>linksfrom</code> or <code>linksto</code> statement. ''pagesel'' only makes sense if there is more than one page mentioned in the <code>linksfrom</code> or <code>linksto</code> condition.
|-
|'''''title'''''
|Orders list sorted by article (prefix +) title.
|-
|'''''titlewithoutnamespace'''''
|Orders list sorted by the article name regardless of namespace.
|-
|'''''sortkey'''''
|Orders list sorted by [[mw:Help:Categories#Sort key|(category) sortkey]] (is ordered by sortkey of the '''first category specified''', if there are multiple); requires at least one category statement. Sortkey provides either the default category sort order (alphabetical), or a sortkey can be manually specified on each page in the category. Since ''sortkey'' relates directly to the sorting order of pages in one category, ''sortkey'' functions as an alias of sorts for "category". 
|-
|'''''none'''''
|Do not apply any ordering (except ordering by timestamp if you requested a list of revisions); this method is set by default if <code>openreferences</code> is set.
|}


'''''methodN''''' can also be one of the following '''combination''' of values (which will be sorted in ''ascending'' order by default, see <code>{{DPL|order}}</code>):


{| class="wikitable" style="max-width:1200px;"
! Method
! Description
! Note
|-
|'''''user,firstedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by user, then by last edit.
|rowspan="6"|If the user who did the first or last edit is nonexistent locally (an editor from page import), the user link appears escaped on-page.
|-
|'''''user,lastedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by user, then by first edit.
|-
|'''''title,firstedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by title, then by lastedit by any user.
|-
|'''''title,lastedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by title, then by firstedit by any user.
|-
|'''''titlewithoutnamespace,firstedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by title (without the namespace), then by firstedit by any user.
|-
|'''''titlewithoutnamespace,lastedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by title (without the namespace), then by lastedit by any user.
|-
!colspan="3"|For use with <code>{{DPL|headingmode}}</code>, see {{DPL|headingmode}}.
|-
! Method
! Description
! Use
|-
|'''''category,title'''''
|Orders list sorted by category, then by title.
|rowspan="5"|
* The first argument sets each ''category'' as a heading and orders by
* The second argument sets ''MethodN'' as the order of article results ''under'' each category heading; if used without <code>headingmode</code>, these values will cause unwanted duplication of results. Requires at least one category statement.
'''Note:''' If pages in the result set belong to more than one category, all categories are listed and the results will appear more than once in the output. See {{DPL|headingmode}} for more information.
|-
|'''''category,firstedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by category, then by first edit.
|-
|'''''category,lastedit'''''
|Orders list sorted by category, then by last edit within a category.
|-
|'''''category,pagetouched'''''
|Orders list sorted by category, then by pagetouched.
|-
|'''''category,sortkey'''''
|Orders list sorted by title and [[mw:Help:Categories#Sort key|(category) sortkey]]; requires at least one category statement and a sortkey must be set on at least one of the output pages.
|}


'''Example:'''<br><br><!-- transclude example from subpage-->{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: ordermethod (example 1)|Example}}
{{ViewTest|Examples|Parameter: ordermethod (example 1)}}

==order==

{{DPL Parameter
 |name   = order
 |purpose= Controls the sort direction of the list; '''requires''' <code>{{DPL|ordermethod}}</code> to be set, so that DPL3 knows which criterion (or criteria) to sort by. 
}}


'''Syntax:''' <code>order=<i>orderdirection</i></code>

''orderdirection'' can be one of:
* ''descending'' — Depending on the criteria set, largest to smallest, most to least, 9 to 0 and/or Z to A
* ''ascending''  — Depending on the criteria set, smallest to largest, least to most, 0 to 9 and/or A to Z  — ('''default''', need not be set)


'''Example:'''<br><br><!-- transclude example from subpage-->{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: order (example 1)|Example}}
{{ViewTest|Examples|Parameter: order (example 1)}}

==ordercollation==

{{DPL Parameter
 |name   = ordercollation
 |purpose= Defines the collating sequence for ordering. Allows individual collations, makes case-insensitive sorting possible.
}}


'''Syntax:''' <code>ordercollation=<i>latin1_german_ci</i></code>


'''Notes:'''
* For case insensitivity during the ''selection'' of articles, see <code>{{DPL|ignorecase}}</code>.
* You may want to try <code>latin1_swedish_ci</code> or other collation mapping table names as well. If you use a name for the first time, you should make sure that it is spelled correctly. Otherwise, you will see a SQL error message.
* A special (proprietary) function can be used to sort card suit symbols according to the rank of suits that is used in the card game of bridge (this cannot be done by standard collating sequences). To trigger this function, set <code>{{DPL|ordercollation}}=bridge</code>.


==Other ways to sort==

===tablesortmethod===
{{DPL Parameter
 |name   = tablesortmethod
 |purpose = Improves DPL's sorting behavior for table columns that are nearly numeric.<br>{{Tempparam}}
}}


'''Syntax:'''<br>


{{syntax|tablesortmethod{{=}}''methodname''}} where ''methodname'' can be one of:

* <code>''standard''</code> – outputs in an order like <code>100, 103, 103-104, 99, 105</code> – ('''default''').
* <code>''natural''</code> – outputs in an order like <code>99, 100, 103, 103-104, 105</code>.

'''Reminder:''' ''Initial'' sort is not set by this parameter, thus a table header must be clicked to sort by to see the results of each statement.


'''Example:'''<br><br><!-- transclude example from subpage-->{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablesortmethod (example 1)|Example}}
{{ViewTest|Examples|Parameter: tablesortmethod (example 1)}}


'''Example:'''<br><br><!-- transclude example from subpage-->{{#lsth:Examples/Parameter: tablesortmethod (example 2)|Example}}
{{ViewTest|Examples|Parameter: tablesortmethod (example 2)}}


===tablesortcol===
{{#lsth:Examples|tablesortcol}}<!-- transclude from other page -->


===Using JavaScript===

In some cases, DPL3 sorting features are sufficient; think of the following example: 
* You create a list of pages which use a certain template. 
* You want to show the value of the first parameter each page uses when calling that template. This can easily be done with the <code>{{DPL|include}}</code> feature of DPL. 
* If you now wanted the output to be sorted by the ''value'' of that parameter, DPL3 could not help because it had to analyze all articles before finding those parameter values.


But there is another way:
* Create a ''sortable wiki table'' (using the <code>{{DPL|table}}</code> option of DPL3 with <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" copy>class="wikitable sortable"</syntaxhighlight>) and you can click on the column headings to sort your output accordingly. However, the initial order shown in that table will still be the order in which DPL3 parsed the wiki pages (usually an alphabetical order of the page names).

Using a handful of JavaScript lines, you can sort a wikitable ''on pageLoad'' by any column. You must insert that JavaScript code AT THE END of your page:

<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript">
  sortables_init();
  // sort the first sortable table; change [0] to sort other tables.
  tab = document.getElementsByTagName("table")[0];
  // sort by the first column; change [0] to sort by other columns.
  hdr = tab.getElementsByTagName("th")[0];
  // get the sort button link
  lnk = hdr.getElementsByTagName("a")[0];
  ts_resortTable(lnk);
</syntaxhighlight>

Before version 1.16 of MediaWiki, ''wikibits.js'' was typically called at the end of a page and performed ''sortables_init()''. Calling it explicitly did not result in it being recognized, but rather resulted in adding a second set of sort link buttons.

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Primary Module|03]]