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spark.collections 

SortField  - AS3 Flex

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(Preview)
Packagespark.collections
Classpublic class SortField
InheritanceSortField Inheritance AdvancedStyleClient Inheritance EventDispatcher Inheritance Object
Implements ISortField

Language Version: ActionScript 3.0
Product Version: Flex 4.5
Runtime Versions: Flash Player 10.1, AIR 2.5

Provides the sorting information required to establish a sort on a field or property in a collection view. SortField class is meant to be used with 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();
     var sortfield:SortField = new SortField("first", true);
     sortfield.setStyle("locale", "en-US");
     sort.fields = [sortfield];
     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();
     var sortfield:SortField = new SortField(null, true);
     sortfield.setStyle("locale", "en-US");
     sort.fields = [sortfield];
     col.sort = sort;
  

The default comparison provided by the SortField class provides correct language specific sorting for strings. The language is selected by the setting the locale style on an instance of the class in one of the following ways:

  • By using the class in an MXML declaration and inheriting the locale from the document that contains the declaration.
  • Example:
      <fx:Declarations> 
             <s:SortField id="sf" /> 
      </fx:Declarations>
      
  • By using an MXML declaration and specifying the locale value in the list of assignments.
  • Example:
      <fx:Declarations> 
          <s:SortField id="sf_SimplifiedChinese" locale="zh-Hans-CN" /> 
      </fx:Declarations>
      
  • Calling the setStyle method, e.g. sf.setStyle("locale", "zh-Hans-CN")
  • Inheriting the style from a UIComponent by calling the UIComponent's addStyleClient() method.

MXML SyntaxexpandedHide MXML Syntax

The <s:SortField> tag has the following attributes:

  <s:SortField
  Properties
  compareFunction="Internal compare function"
  descending="false"
  name="null"
  numeric="null"
  />
  

View the examples

More examples

Related API Elements



Public Properties
 PropertyDefined By
  arraySortOnOptions : int
[read-only] This helper property is used internally by the findItem() and sort() methods.
SortField
  compareFunction : Function
The function that compares two items during a sort of items for the associated collection.
SortField
 Inheritedconstructor : Object
A reference to the class object or constructor function for a given object instance.
Object
  descending : Boolean
Specifies whether this field should be sorted in descending order.
SortField
  name : String
The name of the field to be sorted.
SortField
  numeric : Object
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.
SortField
  usingCustomCompareFunction : Boolean
[read-only] True if this ISortField uses a custom comparator function.
SortField
Public Methods
 MethodDefined By
  
SortField(name:String = null, descending:Boolean = false, numeric:Object = null)
Constructor.
SortField
 Inherited
addEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false, priority:int = 0, useWeakReference:Boolean = false):void
Registers an event listener object with an EventDispatcher object so that the listener receives notification of an event.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Dispatches an event into the event flow.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Checks whether the EventDispatcher object has any listeners registered for a specific type of event.
EventDispatcher
 Inherited
Indicates whether an object has a specified property defined.
Object
  
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.
SortField
 Inherited
Indicates whether an instance of the Object class is in the prototype chain of the object specified as the parameter.
Object
 Inherited
Indicates whether the specified property exists and is enumerable.
Object
 Inherited
removeEventListener(type:String, listener:Function, useCapture:Boolean = false):void
Removes a listener from the EventDispatcher object.
EventDispatcher
  
Reverse the criteria for this sort field.
SortField
 Inherited
Sets the availability of a dynamic property for loop operations.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the string representation of this object, formatted according to locale-specific conventions.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the string representation of the specified object.
Object
 Inherited
Returns the primitive value of the specified object.
Object
 Inherited
Checks whether an event listener is registered with this EventDispatcher object or any of its ancestors for the specified event type.
EventDispatcher
Events
 Event Summary Defined By
 Inherited[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application gains operating system focus and becomes active.EventDispatcher
 Inherited[broadcast event] Dispatched when the Flash Player or AIR application operating loses system focus and is becoming inactive.EventDispatcher
Styles

Styles are either common or associated with a specific theme. If the style is common, it can be used with any theme. If a style is associated with a specific theme, it can only be used if your application uses that theme.

Common Styles
 Style Description Defined By
  
locale
Type: String CSS Inheritance: Yes
Language Version: ActionScript 3.0  Product Version: Flex 4.5  Runtime Versions: Flash10.1, AIR 2.5

The locale identifier that specifies the language, region, script and optionally other related tags and keys. The syntax of this identifier must follow the syntax defined by the Unicode Technical Standard #35 (for example, en-US, de-DE, zh-Hans-CN).

For browser based apps, the default locale is based on the language settings from the browser. (Note that this is not the browser UI language that is available from Javascript, but rather is the list of preferred locales for web pages that the user has set in the browser preferences.) For AIR applications, the default UI locale is based on the user's system preferences.

Learn more

SortField
Property Detail
Constructor Detail
Method Detail
SortExample1.mxml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" 
               minWidth="955" minHeight="600">
    <!-- Sample program for spark.collections.Sort and SortField --> 
    <fx:Declarations>
        <s:Sort id="sortbyLastName_FirstName">
            <s:fields>
                <s:SortField name="last"/>
                <s:SortField name="first"/>
            </s:fields>
        </s:Sort>
        <mx:ArrayCollection id="collection" sort="{sortbyLastName_FirstName}">
            <mx:source>
                <fx:Object first="Anders" last="Dickerson"/>
                <fx:Object first="Eileen" last="Maccormick"/>
                <fx:Object first="Aiden" last="MacCormick"/>
                <fx:Object first="Steve" last="MacGregor"/>
            </mx:source>
        </mx:ArrayCollection>
    </fx:Declarations>
    
    <s:VGroup>
        <s:VGroup>
            <s:HGroup>
                <s:Label text="Input Locale ID Name: "/>
                <s:TextInput id="inputLocaleIDName"/>
                <!-- 
                Sets the locale style on the document UI component.
                The SortField and Sort objects defined in the 
                fx:Declarations section will inherit this style.
                -->
                <s:Button click="{setStyle('locale', inputLocaleIDName.text); 
                          collection.refresh()}" label="Apply"/>
            </s:HGroup>
            <s:Label text="Example: 'en-US', 'fr-FR', 'zh-CN', 'ar-SA'"/>
        </s:VGroup>
        <s:DataGrid dataProvider="{collection}" width="100%"
                     creationComplete="{collection.refresh()}">
            <s:columns>
                <s:ArrayList>
                    <s:GridColumn dataField="last"/>
                    <s:GridColumn dataField="first"/>
                </s:ArrayList>
            </s:columns>
        </s:DataGrid>
    </s:VGroup>
</s:Application>
SortExample2.mxml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx" 
               minWidth="955" minHeight="600"
               creationComplete="initApp()">
    <!-- Sample program for spark.collections.Sort and SortField -->    
    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
            import spark.collections.*;
            [Bindable]
            private var collection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection();
            
            private function localeChange():void
            {
                // Sets the locale style on this application.
                // The SortField objects will inherit this style.
                setStyle('locale', inputLocaleIDName.text);
                collection.refresh();
            }

            private function initApp() : void
            {
                // Add data to the collection.
                collection.addItem({first:"Anders", last:"Dickerson"});
                collection.addItem({first:"Steve", last:"Maccormick"});
                collection.addItem({first:"Aiden", last:"MacCormick"});
                collection.addItem({first:"Eileen", last:"MacGregor"});
                
                // Create the Sort instance.
                var sort:Sort = new Sort();
                
                // Set the sort field; sort on the last name first, first name 
                // second.
                var sortfieldLastName:SortField = new SortField("last",true);
                var sortfieldFirstName:SortField = new SortField("first",true);
                sort.fields = [sortfieldLastName, sortfieldFirstName];
                
                // Add the sort field objects to this application's list of
                // style clients.  This will cause the sort field objects to 
                // inherit the locale style from this Application. 
                addStyleClient(sortfieldLastName);
                addStyleClient(sortfieldFirstName);
                
                // Assign the Sort object to the view.
                collection.sort = sort;
                
                // Apply the sort to the collection.
                collection.refresh();
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
    
    <s:VGroup>
        <s:VGroup>
            <s:HGroup>
                <s:Label text="Input Locale ID Name: "/>
                <s:TextInput id="inputLocaleIDName"/>
                <s:Button click="localeChange()" label="Apply"/>
            </s:HGroup>
            <s:Label text="Example: 'en-US', 'fr-FR', 'zh-CN', 'ar-SA'"/>
        </s:VGroup>
        
        <s:DataGrid dataProvider="{collection}" width="100%"
                     creationComplete="{collection.refresh()}">
            <s:columns>
                <s:ArrayList>
                    <s:GridColumn dataField="last"/>
                    <s:GridColumn dataField="first"/>
                </s:ArrayList>
            </s:columns>
        </s:DataGrid>
    </s:VGroup>
</s:Application>