• This parser (added v2.17.3) will convert roman numerals into their decimal equivalent so the table column can be sorted correctly.
• There are actually 3 separate parsers included with this script.
  • They are very similar, but were written to cover different use cases.
  • Refer to each in their separate sections below.
• This demo includes the stored roman numeral values within the table cells, toggle the view using the button directly above the table.

• This parser is optimized for columns that contain only roman numerals.
• In the demo below, this parser is used for the "Short" and "Long" columns.
• This parser has no option settings.

$(function() {

	$("table").tablesorter({
		theme: 'blue',
		widgets: ['zebra'],
		headers: {
			0 : { sorter: 'roman' },
			1 : { sorter: 'roman' }
		}
	});

});

This parser is designed to use the roman_ignore option to either:

Ignore The Last "X" Characters

For content that contains a roman number followed by an alphabetical character, such as "Ia" or "IIb", this parser can be set to ignore the last character (spaces are trimmed automatically):

$(function() {

	$("table").tablesorter({
		theme: 'blue',
		widgets: ['zebra'],
		headers: {
			2 : { sorter: 'roman-ignore' }
		},
		// roman numeral parser option
		// ignore the last (1) character(s) in column 2 (zero-based index)
		// the two zeros in the array are just placeholders ( [ , , 1 ] works as well )
		roman_ignore: [ 0, 0, 1 ]

	});

});

Remove Non-Roman Numerals

For cells that contain a bit more complex layout, you can define a regular expression to ignore (remove) certain parts of the content.

The value obtained from the roman_ignore option array is used within a javascript replace function, so it can be either a regular expression or a string.

In this example (see the "Ignore regex" column in the demo below), content at the beginning of the cell is set to be ignored. This should leave the roman numeral string to be parsed by this script (spaces are trimmed automatically).

$(function() {

	$("table").tablesorter({
		theme: 'blue',
		widgets: ['zebra'],
		headers: {
			3 : { sorter: 'roman-ignore' }
		},
		// roman numeral parser option
		// ignore any words at the beginning of column 3 (zero-based index) using a regular expression
		// additionally, if all column content contains the same character to ignore, a string can be
		// passed within this option, e.g. "Chapter "
		// the three zeros in the array are just placeholders ( [ , , , /^(\w+\s)/ ] works as well )
		roman_ignore: [ 0, 0, 0, /^(\w+\s)/ ]

	});

});

• This parser will attempt to extract out a roman numeral block from the cell content.
• It's not perfect. If the content contains two blocks of roman numerals, they will be combined. For example,
  • If a cell contains X plus VII, the parser will extract out XVII and return a value of 17.
  • Or worse yet, if a cell contains VI minus X, the parser will extract out VIX which is not a valid roman numeral, so it will instead return the initial value of VI minus X. If this is the case, use the "roman-ignore" parser instead.

$(function() {

	$("table").tablesorter({
		theme: 'blue',
		widgets: ['zebra'],
		headers: {
			4 : { sorter: 'roman-extract' }
		}
	});

});