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Chris3y's avatar
Chris3y
Frequent Visitor
7 years ago
Solved

Issues sorting one column by another when using filters

Hi,   Very new to PBI so the solution here, may be very basic. For reference, I'm using a Direct Connection to a local SQL db.  I have a table which is something like the following:   Primary ...
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  • v-cherch-msft's avatar
    v-cherch-msft
    7 years ago

    Hi Chris3y

     

    Based on my test, you may check the 'Title' column. The error is because it has duplicate values. If there is no duplicate titles it will not have error and it could be sort by row number as below pictures.

    Error

    correct

    Regards,

    Cherie

     

     

Chris3y's avatar
Chris3y
Frequent Visitor
7 years ago

Thank you for the reply.

 

I have some blanks in that column so I'm sure that's the problem.

 

Really, all I want to do is display the Title column (among others) in a tabular visual but sorted by the RowNumber one. However, I don't want to display the row number.

 

If I *do* display rownumber, I can sort the who set in the visual by it but as I say, I'd rather not do that if possible. Can you suggest anything further?

 

I've tried sorting the whole set by RowNumber column in the query editor but it has no effect when adding just the title column which is then sorted alphabetically. 

v-cherch-msft's avatar
v-cherch-msft
Microsoft Employee
7 years ago

Hi Chris3y

 

Do you use table visual or others? It could be sorted without RowNumber column.

Regards,

Cherie

  • Chris3y's avatar
    Chris3y
    Frequent Visitor
    7 years ago

    v-cherch-msft

     

    Rightly or wrongly, I'm specifically using the built-in "matrix" visual. The "Sort by Column" button is greyed out, even after selecting the "RowNumber" column from the field list. The button is only enabled if I add the RowNumber column to the visual which I'm trying to avoid. 

     

    • v-cherch-msft's avatar
      v-cherch-msft
      Microsoft Employee
      7 years ago

      Hi Chris3y

       

      Please follow below steps: 1. Click the 'Title' column 2. Click the 'Sort by column' and select 'RowNumber' column.

       

      Regards,

      Cherie

      • Chris3y's avatar
        Chris3y
        Frequent Visitor
        7 years ago

        That's what I've been trying all along. I tried again got the same message:

         

        "There can't be more than one value in "RowNumber" for the same value in "Title". Please chose a differenct column for sorting.

         

        I cannot understand why it's so difficult to sort by a non-visible field. To be clear, if I had the row number field to the Matrix, I can sort it without issue, simply by clicking its column heading.