How to override the sort behavior of table column ?

Add following code to managed bean that is accessed from the table's sort listener. In this example, whenever users try to sort on the DepartmentName by clicking onto the table header, the sort criteria is modified to DepartmentId .

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import oracle.adf.view.faces.component.core.data.CoreTable;
import oracle.adf.view.faces.event.SortEvent;
import oracle.adf.view.faces.model.SortCriterion;


public class Sortbean {
public Sortbean() {
}

public void onSort(SortEvent sortEvent) {

List sortList = sortEvent.getSortCriteria();
SortCriterion sc = (SortCriterion) sortList.get(0);

//override sort by DepartmentName and make it sort by DepartmentId instead
if (((String)sc.getProperty()).equalsIgnoreCase("DepartmentName")){
System.out.println("You wanted to sort " +sc.getProperty());

sortList = new ArrayList();
SortCriterion sc2 = new SortCriterion("DepartmentId",true);
System.out.println("This is what I want you to sort for "+sc2.getProperty());
sortList.add(sc2);

CoreTable ct = (CoreTable)sortEvent.getComponent();
ct.setSortCriteria(sortList);
}
}
}