How to sort by Date with DataTables jquery plugin?

Date Sort - with a hidden element

Convert the date to the format YYYYMMDD and prepend to the actual value (MM/DD/YYYY) in the <td>, wrap it in an element, set style display:none; to the elements. Now the date sort will work as a normal sort. The same can be applied to date-time sort.

HTML

<table id="data-table">
   <tr>
     <td><span>YYYYMMDD</span>MM/DD/YYYY</td>
   </tr>
</table>

CSS

#data-table span {
    display:none; 
}

You should make use of the HTML5 Data Attributes. https://www.datatables.net/examples/advanced_init/html5-data-attributes.html

Just add the data-order element to your td element.
No plugins required.

<table class="table" id="exampleTable">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Firstname</th>
            <th>Sign Up Date</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>

    <tbody>

        <tr>
            <td>Peter</td>
            <td data-order="2015-11-13 12:00">13. November 2015</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Daniel</td>
            <td data-order="2015-08-06 13:44">06. August 2015</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Michael</td>
            <td data-order="2015-10-14 16:12">14. October 2015</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>


<script>
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('#exampleTable').DataTable();
    });
</script>