Figuring out datagrid sort programmatically

Question

OK I've got a datagrid with 4 columns. I'm giving the end
user the opportunity to sort on any of these columns. They also
have a report that is generated based on the data in the grid, but
I'm wondering how determine on which column the grid is sorted, and
which (ascending / descending) order so that I can sort the report
in that exact same manner.
I've added some code on the headerRelease event to track this
information (storing it in the Cairngorm ModelLocator), but if you
trace the results it doesn't foot to what you're actually doing,
for example the following writes inconsistent (to the apparent
action being taken in the interface) info to the console. I can
always get the correct dataField property, but its sortDescending
property is almost always opposite of what the datagrid displays:
private function
handleHeaderRelease(dgEvent:DataGridEvent):void
for(var k:int=0;k<myGrid.columns.length;k++)
trace(myGrid.columns[k].dataField + ":" +
myGrid.columns[k].sortDescending);
trace("");
Does anyone know of a better way to figure out on which
column the grid is currently sorted, and what sort nature is
currently applied?
TIA,
Joe

Answer 1

OK I figured this out after remembering that the dataprovider
of the datagrid is just an ArrayCollection - here's the answer for
anyone who's looking for the same thing.
In the function that calls the report:
var s:Sort;
var sF:SortField;
s = summaryGrid.dataProvider.sort;
// if sort is null, they haven't clicked any column headers,
so use the default
if(s == null)
urlVariables.sortOrder = "dtAdded";
urlVariables.sortNature = "DESC";
otherwise use the first sort field
(this could be modified to build an appropriate order by
statement for multiple
sort fields if necessary)
else
sF = s.fields[0];
urlVariables.sortOrder = sF.name;
urlVariables.sortNature = sF.descending?"DESC":"ASC";
Hope this helps someone!