Exclude Specific Items When Sorting Grid Data

Updated on Dec 10, 2025

Environment

Product	Progress® Kendo UI® Grid for jQuery
Product Version	2018.2.516

Description

How can I exclude a particular row from sorting so that it always stays on top?

Solution

Use the compare function of the sortable property and use custom logic to override the default behavior. In the following example, Chai will always be the first row regardless of the sorting that the user applies.

<script src="https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/shared/js/products.js"></script>

<div id="example">
  <div id="grid"></div>

  <script>
    $(document).ready(function() {
      $("#grid").kendoGrid({
        dataSource: {
          data: products,
          schema: {
            model: {
              fields: {
                ProductName: { type: "string" },
                UnitPrice: { type: "number" },
                UnitsInStock: { type: "number" },
                Discontinued: { type: "boolean" }
              }
            }
          },
          pageSize: 80
        },
        height: 850,
        sortable: {
          compare: function(a, b, descending) {
            if (descending){
              return a.ProductName == "Chai" ? 1 : a.ProductName === b.ProductName ? 0 : (a.ProductName > b.ProductName) ? 1 : -1;
            }
            else{
              return b.ProductName == "Chai" ? 1 : a.ProductName === b.ProductName ? 0 : (a.ProductName > b.ProductName) ? 1 : -1;
            }
          }
        },
        pageable: {
          input: true,
          numeric: false
        },
        columns: [
          "ProductName",
          { field: "UnitPrice", title: "Unit Price", format: "{0:c}", width: "130px", sortable: false },
          { field: "UnitsInStock", title: "Units In Stock", width: "130px", sortable: false },
          { field: "Discontinued", width: "130px", sortable: false }
        ]
      });
    });
  </script>
</div>

See Also

• Displaying Frozen Rows in the Grid