Matrix Total Column sort

[ThomasDay]

Hello fellow PowerBI'ers,

I have been trying to understand the status of Matrix sorting in the ideas section.  I fully get that it's a tricky question.  That said, am I actually unable to sort a Matrix by the Total Column under any circumstances?  Here's a matrix with no row subtotals, just row totals...and I want to sort by the total column.  No can do.

That does seem a little odd despite the complexity of more elaborate matrix structure sorting.  Thoughts?

Tom

[Sean]

Yes @ThomasDay I am amazed when I see some people claim you can sort in the Matrix!

If you have indeed seen the Ideas you surely have seen my post(s) specifically on Sorting!

A quick fix for you (although I know this will not be what you want exactly)

Reverse the order of county and primary city - then they'll sort correctly but not like you want the results to look!

We need to be able to sort at each level as I explained here

You can see my comment 5th form top

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/15844186-pivot-tables-and-breakdo...

Plus I've been asking for the Collapse/Expand Buttons since Aug 2015

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/9207006-matrix-collapse-expand-bu...

[ThomasDay]

@Sean FWIW, I added 3 votes to your +/- collapse idea.  And it does seem like matrix visuals are getting some attention this year...hope so!  Tom

[Sean]

@ThomasDay

The more I look at the picture you posted something is off...

You are sorting only 1 column - so it should sort at the County level

and if you have several cities in each County those should be sorted inside the county also

this is strange since you are only trying to sort 1 column

I tried to duplicate it but can't...

I have to say I've not had problems sorting only 1 Column

Good Luck!

[ThomasDay · Accepted solution]

@Sean Thanks for the heads up--I just figured matrix sorting was funky.  Since the data is in a measure and a slicer determines what's shown on the table...sometimes the data is $ other times it's a count...I format it when building the measure.  And that makes it sort as text.  I could not for the life of me figure out what was happening, but it's sorting left to right, one place at a time.  And, even if the data being chosen has a format, that can't be passed along to the measure.  Grrrr.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up.  Tom