# Sort by column headers in Rails 2.0

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sort-by-column-headers-in-rails-2-0/132415>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 19, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sort-by-column-headers-in-rails-2-0/132415 "2008-03-19T23:26:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![loominator1970](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/6f9a4e/32.png) [@loominator1970](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loominator1970)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sort-by-column-headers-in-rails-2-0/132415/1 "2008-03-19T23:26:07Z")

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hello,

I’m attempting to implement the code created by Dave B. to sort by  
column headers shown here:

[http://www.koders.com/ruby/fidA98C27CE5EEE13550817B81CF0B07DAADAAA9B37.aspx?s=sort#L1](http://www.koders.com/ruby/fidA98C27CE5EEE13550817B81CF0B07DAADAAA9B37.aspx?s=sort#L1)

Well, i wouldn’t be writing here if it worked, so I’m wondering if  
someone could tell me what i’m doing wrong. I keep getting the error,  
“uninitialized class variable @@sort\_keys in SortHelper”. Below is my  
view code that is getting hung up and my controller code. Any advice  
would help

Dave

## View:

## Controller:

class ToolsController \< ApplicationController

helper :sort  
include SortHelper

# the following method should sort columns

def list # action  
SortHelper.columns = %w[  
title  
status  
priority  
owner  
eta  
]  
SortHelper.default\_order = %w[title status priority owner eta]  
@people = Person.find\_all.sort do |a, b|  
SortHelper.sort(a, b, @params)  
end  
end

| \<%= link\_to\_sort\_by 'Title', 'title' %\> | Description | \<%= link\_to\_sort\_by 'Status', 'status' %\> | \<%= link\_to\_sort\_by 'Priority', 'priority' %\> | \<%= link\_to\_sort\_by 'Owner', 'owner' %\> | \<%= link\_to\_sort\_by 'Eta', 'eta' %\> |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![loominator1970](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/6f9a4e/32.png) [@loominator1970](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/loominator1970)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sort-by-column-headers-in-rails-2-0/132415/2 "2008-05-01T18:02:50Z")

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I can’t help with the sort helper, but I did just release a Rails  
plugin gem to help with setting up sortable tables in Rails:  
[http://sortablecolumns.rubyforge.org/](http://sortablecolumns.rubyforge.org/)