Laravel 5.1 sort a table

Question

I have a simple controller function to output a table of users, but I want it to sort by the 'approved' column, which is either 1 or 0. My controller looks like this:

public function showAllUsers()
{
    $users = \User::all();
    return \View::make('admin.users.all', array('users' => $users));
}

How do I sort the table by this column? I have tried functions like SortBy('approved','desc') but this doesn't have an effect.

View:*

@extends('layouts.admin')

@section('scripts')
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="../js/datatables.js"></script>
@stop

@section('stylesheets')
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{{url('css/datatables.css')}}" />
@stop

    @section('content')
            <div class="row">
              <div class="col-lg-12">
                <h1>Members</h1>
                    @if(Session::has('success'))
                        <div class="alert alert-success">
                            <p>{{ 

Session::get('success') }}</p>
                    </div>
                @endif

          </div>
          <div class="col-lg-12">
            <a type="button" class="btn btn-success" href="{{url('admin/members/add')}}">Add Member</a>
            <br/>
            <br/>
            </div>
        </div><!-- /.row -->

    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-lg-12">
            <div class="table-responsive">
              <table id="dattab" class="table table-hover table-striped tablesorter">
                <thead>
                  <tr>
                    <th class="header headerSortUp">Membership ID <i class="fa fa-sort"></i></th>
                    <th class="header">Fullname <i class="fa fa-sort"></i></th>
                    <th class="header">Membership Type <i class="fa fa-sort"></i></th>
                    <th class="header">Status<i class="fa fa-sort"></i></th>
                    <th class="header">Join Date<i class="fa fa-sort"></i></th>
                    <th class="header">Actions</th>
                  </tr>
                </thead>
                <tbody>
                @foreach ($users as $user)
                <tr>
                    <td>{{$user->membership_id}}</td>
                    <td>{{$user->firstname." ".$user->lastname}}</td>
                    <td>{{$user->getMembershipType()}}</td>
                    <td>
                        @if($user->approved) Approved
                        @elseif (!$user->approved)
                            <a href="{{url('admin/members/approve/'.$user->id)}}" class="btn btn-success">Approve</a>
                        @endif
                    </td>
                    <td>
                        {{ (new DateTime($user->created_at))->format('d/m/Y') }}
                    </td>
                    <td>
                        <div class="btn-group">
                          <button class="btn btn-primary btn-sm dropdown-toggle" type="button" data-toggle="dropdown">
                            Choose Action <span class="caret"></span>
                          </button>
                          <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu">
                            <li><a href="{{url('admin/members/edit/'.$user->id)}}">Edit</a></li>
                            <li class="divider"></li>
                            <li><a href="{{url('admin/members/delete/'.$user->id)}}" onclick="return confirm('Are you sure');">Delete</a></li>
                          </ul>
                        </div>                  
                    </td>
                </tr>
                @endforeach
                </tbody>
              </table>
            </div>
          </div>

        </div><!-- /.row -->


@stop

Answer 1

You can use the query builder to get the database to order the results before they're retrieved. See the docs for more information http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/queries#ordering-grouping-limit-and-offset

public function showAllUsers()
{
    $users = \User::orderBy('approved', 'desc')->get();

    return view('admin.users.all', compact('users'));
}

Alternativly you can also sort them after they've been retrieved from the database using the laravel collections. http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/collections#method-sortby

public function showAllUsers()
{
    $users = \User::all()->sortBy('approved', 'desc');

    return view('admin.users.all', compact('users'));
}

Answer 2

You'll be looking for the orderBy method: http://laravel.com/docs/5.1/queries#ordering-grouping-limit-and-offset

In this case:

$users = \User::orderBy('approved','desc')->get();