We often get asked this question and see a lot of clients using a plugin to achieve this simple request. How do you add a ‘Sort Alphabetically’ option to the standard WooCommerce product sorting drop-down option?
There are two ways that we can use to add Add a sort by product name option to the default WooCommerce sorting, both methods are explained in detail below.
Using Plugin
Extra Product Sorting Options for WooCommerce provides options that extend the default WooCommerce order-by options on the shop page. You can optionally set a new name for the default sorting (helpful if you’ve used this to create a custom sorting order) and can enable up to 5 new sorting options: alphabetical, reverse alphabetical, on sale, review count, and availability product sorting. You can also remove core sorting options, or remove the sorting dropdown completely.
Features
Includes options to:
- rename default product sorting (i.e., change to “Our Sorting”)
- enable alphabetical product sorting
- enable reverse alphabetical sorting
- enable on-sale sorting (note: works only for simple products)
- enable sorting by inventory/availability
- enable sorting by review count (most reviews to least)
- remove core sorting options
Rename Default Sorting
You can customize your product sorting order on your shop pages – here’s a handy tutorial to do so. However, many shop admins like to then rename this from “Default Sorting” to something more descriptive, such as “Our Sorting” or “Our Selection”. You can optionally enter a new name for this sorting order if desired.
Adding Sorting Options
When you create a customized sorting order, you lose the ability to sort products alphabetically. This plugin gives you the ability to add new sorting options to list products by title A to Z or in reverse order (Z to A).
Want to show items with the highest stock first? You can enable sorting by availability, which will enable sorting from high stock to low stock (See FAQ for more details). You can also sort by the number of product reviews.
You can add the option to sort items by sale status – there’s a sorting option to show “On Sale” items first in the shop catalog. Please note that only simple products can be sorted by sale status, and variable products will display mixed with non-sale products.
Remove Sorting Options
You can remove the core sorting options as well! If all sorting options have been removed, the sorting dropdown will become hidden on shop pages.
Using Coding
This is a very feature to add and all it requires is a bit of PHP, you can add the functionality needed to your theme functions.php file if you are using a child theme. You can also add it as a Snippets using the Code Snippets plugin.
The function needed
This function is pretty simple and adds the option to sort products by name alphabetically, in ascending order.
/**
* Sort by name function by WP Helper
*
* https://wphelper.io/sort-alphabetically-option-default-woocommerce-sorting/
*/
add_filter( 'woocommerce_get_catalog_ordering_args', 'wphelper_woocommerce_get_catalog_ordering_args' );
function wphelper_woocommerce_get_catalog_ordering_args( $args ) {
$orderby_value = isset( $_GET['orderby'] ) ? woocommerce_clean( $_GET['orderby'] ) : apply_filters( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby', get_option( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby' ) );
if ( 'alphabetical' == $orderby_value ) {
$args['orderby'] = 'title';
$args['order'] = 'ASC';
}
return $args;
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby_options', 'wphelper_woocommerce_catalog_orderby' );
add_filter( 'woocommerce_catalog_orderby', 'wphelper_woocommerce_catalog_orderby' );
function wphelper_woocommerce_catalog_orderby( $sortby ) {
$sortby['alphabetical'] = __( 'Sort by name' );
return $sortby;
}
Once you add this function to your theme functions.php file or code snippets you will now have the option to sort the products by name on the WooCommerce shop pages.
If you get stuck with this guide you can hire us to add this for you.
Conclusion
We can able to add a sort-by-product name option using custom coding and by using a plugin approach.
For more information on WooCommerce sorting, let us help you accordingly, from start to finish, with one-Time fixes, custom plans, or monthly routines for your WordPress website.
