Sorting case

[Bartek_Smith]

I used to use Tabelau for years, but now in my company we are going to change our BI soft to PowerBI. Preapering to migration I start to recognize PowerBI features, but I have huge problem with one of the most common function - sorting. What was trivial in tableau like sorting ascending/descending i.e. columns by year here is not that obvious.

Going to the point, I have done matrix table where in values part of matrix my data are sorted by year 23/24/25 but I can not sort in oposit way 25/24/23. How to do this? Any arrow icon doesn't appear, sort by different column (I created external calendar) doesn't work too (circular error). Any ideas how to fix it ? 

[v-priyankata]

Hi @Bartek_Smith 

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Forum Community.

@FBergamaschi @rohit1991 @danextian Thanks for the inputs.

I hope the information provided by users was helpful. If you still have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the community. If your issue has been resolved, please accept the helpful response.

[v-priyankata]

Hi @Bartek_Smith 

Hope everything’s going smoothly on your end. I wanted to check if the issue got sorted. if you have any other issues please reach community. If your issue has been resolved, please accept the helpful response.

[danextian]

hI @Bartek_Smith 

I know it is counter-intuitive but the only solution is, what others have already mentioned, is to use a custom sort by column. I would duplicate the year column. In the image below, visual 1 users Year2 column sorted by another column while the second visual has no custom sort

Please see the attached pbix.

[rohit1991]

Hii @Bartek_Smith 

In Power BI Matrix, column sorting (like Year 23/24/25) does not work from the visual header like Tableau. You must control sorting from the data model. If Year is text (e.g., 23/24/25), create a numeric sort column (e.g., 2023=1, 2024=2, 2025=3 or actual year number), then select the Year column >> Column tools >> Sort by Column >> choose the numeric sort column. Sorting by another column fails due to circular dependency if both columns depend on each other. After setting proper “Sort by Column” in the model, the Matrix will respect ascending/descending order correctly.

[FBergamaschi]

Hi @Bartek_Smith,

sort by column is the way to go

You can do the following

1 - duplicate your calendar query in Power Query

2 - isolate the calendar year column, rmeove duplicates and sort descending

3 - merge the query to have a sorting column done before you load data in Tabular

Now you have a column you can use for sort by column and no circular issue

Attanched a pbix for reference where you can find the visual and all steps done

Best

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Francesco Bergamaschi

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[Bartek_Smith]

Hi,

Thx it works. I didn't expected that there the table copy is needed. A lot of mysterius is still ahead me in PowerBi xD