Daggerdru

I had the same type of problem, and I didn't want to take a lot of memory to sort the table so I created a function that grabs the column to be sorted from the DOM, puts it in a JavaScript Array along with the DOM row as a pointer, Sorts the Array,  then rebuilds the DOM according to the pointers from the sorted Array.

Here is a link to my post.

How to sort large tables in HTML using the DOM elements and very little overhead.

I created this Javascript routine in order to sort a massive table with many rows of data that is fast as uses as little data as possible.

I just wanted to share it with the world.

I am using JQuery but anyone can figure out what I did.  If's fast and efficient.

Basically I grab the column name from the heading clicked, figure out sort direction, take table DOM elements apart and put them in Javascript Array.  I pad number columns so they sort as numbers.  I sort the Array and rebuild the DOM using the Pointer I stored with the Sort Data.

Yes, that easy.  I also remove and add back in the zebra effect.

    $('#table_heading th').click(function() {
        var Class = this.className.split(' ');
        var tr = $('#stage_chart_info tr');
        tr.removeClass('dark').removeClass('light');
        var SortClass = $('#stage_chart_info .' + Class);
        var SortData = Array.prototype.slice.call(SortClass);
        var forsort = Array();
        var Pre = '';
        if (Class[2] == 'num') {
            var DataMask = $(this).attr('data-mask');
            var MaskLeft = Math.floor(DataMask);
            var MaskRight = Math.floor((DataMask - MaskLeft) * 10);
        }

        for (i = 0; i < SortData.length; i++) {
            var ItemArray = new Array(2);
            if (Class[2] == 'txt') {
                ItemArray[0] = $(SortData).text().toLowerCase();
            } else {
                var SortNumber = NumLeft = $(SortData).text().toLowerCase();
                var NumberLeft = Math.floor(SortNumber);
                var NumberRight = Math.floor((SortNumber - NumberLeft) * 10);
                ItemArray[0] = NumberLeft.toString().padStart(MaskLeft, '0');
                if (MaskRight > 0) ItemArray[0] += '.' + NumberRight.toString().padEnd(MaskRight, '0');
            }
            ItemArray[1] = i;
            forsort.push(ItemArray);
        }
        
        tr = $('#stage_chart_info tr').detach();
        $('#table_heading th').removeClass('asc').removeClass('desc').addClass('both');
        switch(Class[3]) {
            case 'both': case 'desc':
                $(this).removeClass('both').addClass('asc');
                forsort.sort();
                break;
            case 'asc':
                $(this).removeClass('both').addClass('desc');
                forsort.reverse();
                break;
        }

        var Zebra = 'dark';
        forsort.forEach(function(item) {
            $(tr[item[1]]).addClass(Zebra);
            $('#stage_chart_info table').append(tr[item[1]]);
            if (Zebra == 'dark') {
                Zebra = 'light'
            } else {
                Zebra = 'dark';
            }
        });
    });