Custom sorting in data grid

Question

Sorting entire records
Problem:
Assume you have an array of 20 items (master array), and
first 5 items are pulled into another array (paged array),
Which is the dataprovider for the datagrid. And the datagrid
has 10 columns.
When the user sorts on the datagrid, sorting should happen on
the 20 records, and
Not on the 5 records.
What i tried:
Clicking on a datagrid column header will sort only the data
provider of the datagrid. i.e., the
5 records. In order to sort all 20 records, sorting should
take place on the master array,
and not on the paged array. Sorting on 20 items seems to be
impossible.
The only logic we could think of was that, on the
headerRelease of datagrid, capture the
column header clicked(not sure if you can capture it or not).
And write custom function
for sorting based on that column. Since there are 10 columns,
the number of functions
or number of blocks of code to be written will Be 10. So did
not feel to be feasible and optimal solution.
Please advice.

Answer 1

Hello chhavs,
If you listen to the DataGrid's headerRelease event, the event has a property columnIndex to let you know which column the user wanted to sort. So you don't need 10 functions, just one with a switch statement, which is reasonable.
private function handleHeaderRelease(event:DataGridEvent):void
var sort:Sort = new Sort();
var field:SortField;
switch (event.columnIndex)
case 0:
field = new SortField("fieldA");
break;
case 1:
field = new SortField("fieldB");
break;
case ...
sort.fields = [field];
masterRecords.sort = sort;
masterRecords.refresh();
Thanks,
Philip