Main options (assuming for the purposes of the example that id is the first column of the table and nome is the second):

During the construction of the table

Use the aaSorting configuration parameter.

$('#exemplo').dataTable( {
    "aaSorting": [[1, "asc"]]
)};

Where the first value ( 1 ) of the array is the index of the column in the table and the second value ( asc ) indicates whether the column should be sorted ascending or descending ( asc or desc ). Multiple columns can be used in sorting by including multiple arrays of two positions in the matrix (as in a order by clause).

After construction

You can use the fnSort function:

  var tabela = $('#exemplo').dataTable();
  // Ordena por nome e "desempata" com o id
  tabela.fnSort([[1,'asc'], [0,'asc']]);

Default sort order

The default reference value of aaSorting is [[0,'asc']] . To keep the ordering in the original order of the dataset do:

 $('#exemplo').dataTable( {
    "aaSorting": []
)};

Sources:

• DataTables - API
• DataTables table sorting example