Just tested your example and everthing work ok for me.

The only think you should know is: if the field is not editable the formatter is not called at all.

If the field that contain the formatter is editable to the formatter is passed the array only of the editable fields and not the all one.

Regards

Tony

                    onSelectRow: function (id)
                    {
                        if (id && id !== lastsel)
                        {
                            if (lastsel) jQuery('#list2').jqGrid('restoreRow', lastsel);
                            jQuery('#list2').jqGrid('editRow', id, true); lastsel = id;
                        }
                    },

In wich editing module is this? cellEdit, inlineEdit of formEdit?

Using the example from the Wiki for a custom formatter, examine the rowObject:-

function currencyFmatter(cellvalue, options, rowObject) {
        alert(rowObject);
        return “$” + cellvalue;
    }

When the grid loads the formatter is called and the rowObject is passed in as expected.  But after an edit operation when the formatter is called a second time the rowObject doesn't contain the row.

Also, the custom formatter appears to receive an additional parameter after the row object that contains either 'add' or 'edit' but this isn't mentioned in the Wiki documentation.