php - How to do complex sorting in jQuery tableSorter? -

i have table following data:

cell1        cell2 computers     10      dell       5    ibm        3    compaq     2 hdds          12    seagate    7    samsung    3    test       2 monitors      18    seagate    7    samsung    9    dell       1 

now if sort cell 2, destroys format , puts 18,12,10 etc. there way preserve rows within 'parent' sorting? example, if sort cell2

cell1        cell2 monitors      18      seagate    7    samsung    9    dell       1 hdds          12    seagate    7    samsung    3    test       2 computers     10    dell       5    ibm        3    compaq     2 

so child rows not sorted @ all, parents sorted preserving order of children.

it's not hard sort elements, given parent , elems:

// custom compare function sorting numbers function sortbynumber( a, b ) {   if ( + a.innerhtml < b.innerhtml ) return -1;   else if( + a.innerhtml > b.innerhtml ) return 1;   else return 0; }  var parent = ...;  // convert array, make sorting possible var items = jquery.makearray( elems ); var len   = items.length;  // item sorting value items = items.sort( sortbynumber );  // append them parent in order ( var = 0; < len; i++ ) {   parent.appendchild( items[i] ); } 

now can in loop subcategories depending on markup.