TOC without 'A' and 'The' determiners?

Index is the way to go. What Ariel suggests (if I understand him correctly) is to move any articles to the end of qualifying entries, generate the toc, then move any articles back. That produces a correctly sorted toc with articles after the entries. But it looks like a risky undertaking, especially compared with Jongware's index method. Besides, what Printhouse showed looks more like an index than a toc, and maybe Printhouse, like so many people, simply confused toc and index.

By the way, Theunis, interesting match() you have there:

.match('^'+articles+' ', 'i')

didn't know you could do things like that.

There is – at least for an index, not for a table o' contents. If you are referring to a table of contents after all, then this will not work.

Before generating the index, run this short JavaScript. It modifies your current Index Entries in place, moving definite and indefinite articles at the start of each topic to the end. Then, generate your index as usual.

indexTopics = app.activeDocument.indexes[0].topics.everyItem().getElements();
articles = ['the','a','an'];
for (i=0; i<indexTopics.length; i++)
{
 for (j=0; j<articles.length; j++)
 {
  if (indexTopics.name.match('^'+articles+' ', 'i'))
  {
   indexTopics.name = indexTopics.name.substring(articles.length+1)+', '+indexTopics.name.substring(0,articles.length);
   break;
  }
 }
}

Result: left, an index generated before running the script. Right, when afterwards.

Looks more like a job for the Index feature than for a TOC.

Hiding the determiners is not difficult using grep style (see example below), but placing them at the end can't be achieved using TOC, afaik...

for begeening take a look here

Create an index in InDesign

...

To change the way an entry is sorted in the final index, use the Sort By boxes. For example, to sort the topic de la Vega under V (instead of D), you would type Vega in the Sort By box and de la Vega in the Topic Level box.

....