Hosta

local p = {};

function p.sort( frame )
	--local wikitable = frame.args[1]
	local wikitable = '! data-sort-type="alpha; first: ascending; initial: 30;" {{!}} Countries\n! data-sort-type="number; first: descending; initial: 1;" {{!}} Population\n! data-sort-type="date; first: ascending; initial: 2;" {{!}} Date'
	local rows = mw.text.split( wikitable, '\n' )
	local rowstosort = {}
	for _, row in ipairs( rows ) do
		mw.log( tostring(row) )
		local indexStart = string.find( row, 'initial: %d' )
--		mw.logObject( indexStart )
		local fromStart = string.sub( row, indexStart + 9 )
--		mw.logObject( fromStart )
		local indexEnd = string.find( fromStart, '[^0-9]', 1)
--		mw.logObject( indexEnd )
		local sortValue = string.gsub( string.sub( fromStart, 0, indexEnd ), ';', '' )
		mw.log( sortValue )
		rowstosort[ sortValue ] = row
	end
	mw.logObject( rows )
	mw.logObject( rowstosort )
	return rows
end

return p