Forum Discussion
Sort column by multiple columns
Hi,
I was wondering if it was possible to sort a column based on two columns?
In the example below I'm trying to sort the Category by the Sort_Order column. The problem is that the sort order is different for the same values within each group. Ideally what I'm looking for is to sort the category by the Sort_Order within each group. Is this possible?
| Group | Category | Sort_Order |
| 1 | Large | 1 |
| 1 | Small | 2 |
| 1 | Medium | 3 |
| 2 | Small | 1 |
| 2 | Medium | 2 |
| 2 | Large | 3 |
I appreciate any help with.
Many thanks,
Ash
Hi aburling1989 ,
You could create a rank column to sort category.
Rank = RANKX ( 'Table', 'Table'[Group] * 10 + 'Table'[Sort_Order],, ASC, DENSE )
7 Replies
Hi aburling1989
If I understand you correct you can create a Surrogate Order Column and try to sort by it, like
Surrogate Order Column = CONCATENATE(Table[Group], CONCATENATE("_", Table[Sort_Order]) )Hi az38 ,
Many thanks for the quick response. The problem is the values in the 'Category' column are not unique, so even if I concatenate the 'Group' and 'Sort' columns I still get this error message: "There can't be more than one value in 'Category' for the same value in 'Surrogate Order Column'.
If I concatenate the 'Group' and 'Category' column it would work as they become unique values but I want to avoid doing that if possible.
Many thanks,
Ashley
also, you can check here https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/how-to-sort-a-table-using-multiple-columns-in-power-bi/ to understand how to sort Table visual by a multiple columns (hint: use Shift + Click)
Hi aburling1989 ,
You could create a rank column to sort category.
Rank = RANKX ( 'Table', 'Table'[Group] * 10 + 'Table'[Sort_Order],, ASC, DENSE )
