Starting with Flex 4.5, Apache recommends that you use the spark.collections.SortField class as an alternative to this class.
Provides the sorting information required to establish a sort on a field
or property in a collection view.
The SortField class is meant to be used with the Sort class.
Typically the sort is defined for collections of complex items, that is
items in which the sort is performed on properties of those objects.
As in the following example:
var col:ICollectionView = new ArrayCollection();
col.addItem({first:"Anders", last:"Dickerson"});
var sort:Sort = new Sort();
sort.fields = [new SortField("first", true)];
col.sort = sort;
There are situations in which the collection contains simple items, like
String, Date, Boolean, etc.
In this case, sorting should be applied to the simple type directly.
When constructing a sort for this situation only a single sort field is
required and should not have a name specified.
For example:
var col:ICollectionView = new ArrayCollection();
col.addItem("California");
col.addItem("Arizona");
var sort:Sort = new Sort();
sort.fields = [new SortField(null, true)];
col.sort = sort;
By default the comparison provided by the SortField class does
not provide correct language specific
sorting for strings. For this type of sorting please see the
spark.collections.Sort and
spark.collections.SortField classes.
Note: to prevent problems like
FLEX-34853
it is recommended to use SortField
instances as immutable objects (by not changing their state).
MXML SyntaxShow MXML Syntax Hide MXML Syntax
The <mx:SortField> tag has the following attributes:
Specifies that if the field being sorted contains numeric
(number/int/uint) values, or string representations of numeric values,
the comparator use a numeric comparison.
A helper function called by the Sort class to set the
default comparison function to perform a comparison based on
one of three things: whether or not a custom compare function has
been set, the data type for the specified field or the the value of the
numeric property.
Pull the values out fo the XML object, then compare
using the string or numeric comparator depending
on the numeric flag.
SortField
Property Detail
arraySortOnOptions
property
arraySortOnOptions:int [read-only]
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
This helper property is used internally by the findItem()
and sort() methods. Other uses of this property are not
supported.
Returns -1 if this ISortField shouldn't be used by the Sort
class to sort the field (there is no compareFunction or no name). Otherwise, returns a bitmask of sort options.
Implementation public function get arraySortOnOptions():int
caseInsensitive
property
caseInsensitive:Boolean [read-only]
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Specifies whether the sort for this field should be case insensitive.
The default value is false.
This property can be used as the source for data binding.
Implementation public function get caseInsensitive():Boolean
compareFunction
property
compareFunction:Function
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
The function that compares two items during a sort of items for the
associated collection. If you specify a compareFunction
property in an ISort object, Flex ignores any
compareFunction properties of the ISort's
SortField objects.
The compare function must have the following signature:
function myCompare(a:Object, b:Object):int
This function must return the following values:
-1, if the Object a should appear before the
Object b in the sorted sequence
0, if the Object a equals the
Object b
1, if the Object a should appear after the
Object b in the sorted sequence
The default value is an internal compare function that can perform
a string, numeric, or date comparison in ascending or descending order,
with case-sensitive or case-insensitive string comparisons.
Specify your own function only if you need a need a custom comparison
algorithm. This is normally only the case if a calculated field is
used in a display.
Note if you need language-specific sorting then consider using the
spark.collections.SortField class.
Implementation public function get compareFunction():Function public function set compareFunction(value:Function):void
Specifies whether this field should be sorted in descending
order.
The default value is false (ascending).
This property can be used as the source for data binding.
Implementation public function get descending():Boolean public function set descending(value:Boolean):void
name
property
name:String
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
The name of the field to be sorted.
The default value is null.
This property can be used as the source for data binding.
Implementation public function get name():String public function set name(value:String):void
numeric
property
numeric:Object
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Specifies that if the field being sorted contains numeric
(number/int/uint) values, or string representations of numeric values,
the comparator use a numeric comparison.
This property is used by SortField class in case custom compare
function is not provided.
If this property is true, the built-in numeric compare
function is used. Each of data items is cast to a
Number() function before the comparison.
If this property is false, the built-in string compare
function is used. Each of data items is cast to a
String() function before the comparison.
If this property is null, the first data item
is introspected to see if it is a number or string and the sort
proceeds based on that introspection.
The default value is null.
This property can be used as the source for data binding.
Implementation public function get numeric():Object public function set numeric(value:Object):void
sortCompareType
property
sortCompareType:String
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 4.11
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 11.8, AIR 3.8
Specifies what compare type will be used for the sortField. This overrides the default
behavior.
This property can be used as the source for data binding.
Implementation public function get sortCompareType():String public function set sortCompareType(value:String):void
usingCustomCompareFunction
property
usingCustomCompareFunction:Boolean [read-only]
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
True if this ISortField uses a custom comparator function.
Implementation public function get usingCustomCompareFunction():Boolean
Constructor Detail
SortField
()
Constructor
public function SortField(name:String = null, caseInsensitive:Boolean = false, descending:Boolean = false, numeric:Object = null, sortCompareType:String = null, customCompareFunction:Function = null)
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Constructor.
Parameters
name:String (default = null) — The name of the property that this field uses for
comparison.
If the object is a simple type, pass null.
caseInsensitive:Boolean (default = false) — When sorting strings, tells the comparator
whether to ignore the case of the values.
descending:Boolean (default = false) — Tells the comparator whether to arrange items in
descending order.
numeric:Object (default = null) — Tells the comparator whether to compare sort items as
numbers, instead of alphabetically.
sortCompareType:String (default = null) — Gives an indication to SortField which of the
default compare functions to use.
customCompareFunction:Function (default = null) — Use a custom function to compare the
objects based on this SortField.
Method Detail
getSortFieldValue
()
method
protected function getSortFieldValue(obj:Object):*
Parameters
obj:Object
Returns
*
initializeDefaultCompareFunction
()
method
public function initializeDefaultCompareFunction(obj:Object):void
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
A helper function called by the Sort class to set the
default comparison function to perform a comparison based on
one of three things: whether or not a custom compare function has
been set, the data type for the specified field or the the value of the
numeric property. If the the numeric property is true,
then a numeric comparison will be performed when sorting.
Parameters
obj:Object — The object that contains the data. If the field name has
been set with the name property, then the name will be used to access
the data value from this object. Otherwise the object itself will
be used as the data value.
objectHasSortField
()
method
public function objectHasSortField(object:Object):Boolean
Parameters
object:Object
Returns
Boolean
reverse
()
method
public function reverse():void
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Reverse the criteria for this sort field.
If the field was sorted in descending order, for example, sort it
in ascending order.
NOTE: An ICollectionView does not automatically
update when the ISortFields are modified; call its
refresh() method to update the view.
Note: a future release of Apache Flex SDK will change the signature
of this function to return a reversed clone of this SortField instance.
See FLEX-34853 for more details.
stringCompare
()
method
protected function stringCompare(a:Object, b:Object):int
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Pull the strings from the objects and call the implementation.
Parameters
a:Object
b:Object
Returns
int
updateSortCompareType
()
method
public function updateSortCompareType():Boolean
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 4.11
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 11.8, AIR 3.8
This changes the internal compare function used by the SortField based
on the value of sortCompareType.
Returns
Boolean — true for successfully matched or false for failure to match the sortCompareType.
xmlCompare
()
method
protected function xmlCompare(a:Object, b:Object):int
Language Version :
ActionScript 3.0
Product Version :
Flex 3
Runtime Versions :
Flash Player 9, AIR 1.1
Pull the values out fo the XML object, then compare
using the string or numeric comparator depending
on the numeric flag.