How to sort a column using a dropdown in Flutter DataTable (SfDataGrid)?

In this article, we will show you how to sort a column using a dropdown in Flutter DataTable.

Initialize the SfDataGrid with the necessary properties. To sort a column using a dropdown, manually define SortColumnDetails objects and add them to the sortedColumns collection of SfDataGrid.source. When a column is selected from the dropdown, it is added to this collection, and the grid sorts the data accordingly. Before applying a new sort, the existing sorted columns are cleared to ensure only the selected column is sorted. To perform sorting at runtime, call the sort() method after updating the sortedColumns collection. The dropdown allows users to choose from available columns (eg : id, name, designation, salary), triggering sorting dynamically.

void _sortDataGrid(String columnName) {
    employeeDataSource.sortedColumns.clear();
    employeeDataSource.sortedColumns.add(
      SortColumnDetails(
        name: columnName,
        sortDirection: DataGridSortDirection.ascending,
      ),
    );
    employeeDataSource.sort();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Syncfusion DataGrid Sorting')),
      body: Column(
        children: [
          Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
            child: Container(
              height: 40,
              width: 200,
              decoration: BoxDecoration(
                border: Border.all(color: Colors.grey),
                borderRadius: BorderRadius.circular(5),
              ),
              padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8),
              child: DropdownButtonHideUnderline(
                child: DropdownButton<String>(
                  value: selectedColumn,
                  hint: const Text("Select Column to Sort"),
                  isExpanded: true,
                  icon: Icon(Icons.arrow_drop_down),
                  style: TextStyle(fontSize: 14, color: Colors.black),
                  items:
                      ["id", "name", "designation", "salary"].map((
                        String column,
                      ) {
                        return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
                          value: column,
                          child: Text(column.toUpperCase()),
                        );
                      }).toList(),
                  onChanged: (String? newValue) {
                    if (newValue != null) {
                      setState(() {
                        selectedColumn = newValue;
                      });
                      _sortDataGrid(newValue);
                    }
                  },
                ),
              ),
            ),
          ),
          Expanded(
            child: SfDataGrid(
              source: employeeDataSource,
              columnWidthMode: ColumnWidthMode.fill,
              columns: <GridColumn>[
                GridColumn(
                  columnName: 'id',
                  label: Container(
                    padding: EdgeInsets.all(16.0),
                    alignment: Alignment.center,
                    child: Text('ID'),
                  ),
                ),
                GridColumn(
                  columnName: 'name',
                  label: Container(
                    padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                    alignment: Alignment.center,
                    child: Text('Name'),
                  ),
                ),
                GridColumn(
                  columnName: 'designation',
                  label: Container(
                    padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                    alignment: Alignment.center,
                    child: Text('Designation'),
                  ),
                ),
                GridColumn(
                  columnName: 'salary',
                  label: Container(
                    padding: EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                    alignment: Alignment.center,
                    child: Text('Salary'),
                  ),
                ),
              ],
            ),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

You can download this example on GitHub.