Problem

It is not possible to sort a Confluence Table that contains mixed Blanked and Date values

Environment

Reproduced on Confluence Data Center version 7.13.2

Steps to Reproduce

• Create a new Confluence page with the storage format below

  <table><colgroup><col /><col /><col /></colgroup>
  <tbody>
  <tr>
  <th>Column 1&nbsp;</th>
  <th>Column 2</th>
  <th>Column 3</th></tr>
  <tr>
  <td>11</td>
  <td>21</td>
  <td>
  <div class="content-wrapper">
  <p><time datetime="2021-12-16" />&nbsp;</p></div></td></tr>
  <tr>
  <td>12</td>
  <td>22</td>
  <td><br /></td></tr>
  <tr>
  <td>13</td>
  <td>23</td>
  <td>
  <div class="content-wrapper">
  <p><time datetime="2021-12-24" />&nbsp;</p></div></td></tr>
  <tr>
  <td>14</td>
  <td>24</td>
  <td><br /></td></tr>
  <tr>
  <td>15</td>
  <td>25</td>
  <td>
  <div class="content-wrapper">
  <p><time datetime="2021-12-31" />&nbsp;</p></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

• Save the page and attempt to sort the table by Column 3 values

Expected Results

• The table should get correctly sorted for the rows that contain correct Dates and even if some rows contain blank/empty values

Actual Results

• The table is not properly sorted correctly and the Console log will return error message below:

  batch.js?highlightactions=true:7 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'attributes')
      at Object.format (batch.js?highlightactions=true:7)
      at c (batch.js?gatekeeper-ui-v2=true&healthcheck-resources=true&highlightactions=true&hostenabled=true&locale=en-GB&user-logged-in=true:2099)
      at HTMLTableCellElement.<anonymous> (batch.js?gatekeeper-ui-v2=true&healthcheck-resources=true&highlightactions=true&hostenabled=true&locale=en-GB&user-logged-in=true:2099)
      at HTMLTableCellElement.dispatch (batch.js?locale=en-GB:54)
      at HTMLTableCellElement.v.handle (batch.js?locale=en-GB:54)
  format @ batch.js?highlightactions=true:7
  c @ batch.js?gatekeeper-ui-v2=true&healthcheck-resources=true&highlightactions=true&hostenabled=true&locale=en-GB&user-logged-in=true:2099
  (anonymous) @ batch.js?gatekeeper-ui-v2=true&healthcheck-resources=true&highlightactions=true&hostenabled=true&locale=en-GB&user-logged-in=true:2099
  dispatch @ batch.js?locale=en-GB:54
  v.handle @ batch.js?locale=en-GB:54

Workaround

N/A

Notes

Screenshot attached for the issue reproduced locally