# DataTables example Multi-column ordering

DataTables allows ordering by multiple columns at the same time, which can be activated in a number of different ways:

- User shift click on a column (added the clicked column as a secondary, tertiary etc ordering column).
- On a per-column basis (i.e. order by a specific column and then a secondary column if the data in the first column is identical), through the `columns.orderData` option.
- Using the `columns.orderData` option to specify a multiple column order by default (for example `[ 0, 1 ]`).
- Through the `order()` API method.

Note that, the ability for the user to shift click to order multiple columns can be disabled through the `orderMulti` option.

The example below shows the first column having a secondary order applied to the second column in the table, vice-versa for the second column being tied directly to the first and the salary column to the first name column.

First name | Last name | Position | Office | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Tiger | Nixon | System Architect | Edinburgh | 320800
Garrett | Winters | Accountant | Tokyo | 170750
Ashton | Cox | Junior Technical Author | San Francisco | 86000
Cedric | Kelly | Senior JavaScript Developer | Edinburgh | 433060
Airi | Satou | Accountant | Tokyo | 162700
Brielle | Williamson | Integration Specialist | New York | 372000
Herrod | Chandler | Sales Assistant | San Francisco | 137500
Rhona | Davidson | Integration Specialist | Tokyo | 327900
Colleen | Hurst | JavaScript Developer | San Francisco | 205500
Sonya | Frost | Software Engineer | Edinburgh | 103600
Jena | Gaines | Office Manager | London | 90560
Quinn | Flynn | Support Lead | Edinburgh | 342000
Charde | Marshall | Regional Director | San Francisco | 470600
Haley | Kennedy | Senior Marketing Designer | London | 313500
Tatyana | Fitzpatrick | Regional Director | London | 385750
Michael | Silva | Marketing Designer | London | 198500
Paul | Byrd | Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | New York | 725000
Gloria | Little | Systems Administrator | New York | 237500
Bradley | Greer | Software Engineer | London | 132000
Dai | Rios | Personnel Lead | Edinburgh | 217500
Jenette | Caldwell | Development Lead | New York | 345000
Yuri | Berry | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | New York | 675000
Caesar | Vance | Pre-Sales Support | New York | 106450
Doris | Wilder | Sales Assistant | Sydney | 85600
Angelica | Ramos | Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | London | 1200000
Gavin | Joyce | Developer | Edinburgh | 92575
Jennifer | Chang | Regional Director | Singapore | 357650
Brenden | Wagner | Software Engineer | San Francisco | 206850
Fiona | Green | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | San Francisco | 850000
Shou | Itou | Regional Marketing | Tokyo | 163000
Michelle | House | Integration Specialist | Sydney | 95400
Suki | Burks | Developer | London | 114500
Prescott | Bartlett | Technical Author | London | 145000
Gavin | Cortez | Team Leader | San Francisco | 235500
Martena | Mccray | Post-Sales support | Edinburgh | 324050
Unity | Butler | Marketing Designer | San Francisco | 85675
Howard | Hatfield | Office Manager | San Francisco | 164500
Hope | Fuentes | Secretary | San Francisco | 109850
Vivian | Harrell | Financial Controller | San Francisco | 452500
Timothy | Mooney | Office Manager | London | 136200
Jackson | Bradshaw | Director | New York | 645750
Olivia | Liang | Support Engineer | Singapore | 234500
Bruno | Nash | Software Engineer | London | 163500
Sakura | Yamamoto | Support Engineer | Tokyo | 139575
Thor | Walton | Developer | New York | 98540
Finn | Camacho | Support Engineer | San Francisco | 87500
Serge | Baldwin | Data Coordinator | Singapore | 138575
Zenaida | Frank | Software Engineer | New York | 125250
Zorita | Serrano | Software Engineer | San Francisco | 115000
Jennifer | Acosta | Junior JavaScript Developer | Edinburgh | 75650
Cara | Stevens | Sales Assistant | New York | 145600
Hermione | Butler | Regional Director | London | 356250
Lael | Greer | Systems Administrator | London | 103500
Jonas | Alexander | Developer | San Francisco | 86500
Shad | Decker | Regional Director | Edinburgh | 183000
Michael | Bruce | JavaScript Developer | Singapore | 183000
Donna | Snider | Customer Support | New York | 112000

- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The JavaScript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`new DataTable('#example', { columnDefs: [ { targets: [0], orderData: [0, 1] }, { targets: [1], orderData: [1, 0] }, { targets: [4], orderData: [4, 0] } ] });`

In addition to the above code, the following JavaScript library files are loaded for use in this example:

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.