Forum Discussion

PhilippeMuniesa's avatar
PhilippeMuniesa
Resolver I
3 years ago

powerquery sort based on two columns

hello,   I have a table with three columns, and I would like to sort on 2 columns, I do not find how to do. While waiting for a relevant solution, I merged the two columns and sorted it out, but ...
Need Help
lbendlin's avatar
lbendlin
Super User
3 years ago

Sort by the first column. Sort by the second column.  You will see little numbers appear

 

 

Or you can do it in code.

 

Note:  Sorting in Power Query is a red flag/code smell.  In the vast majority of cases you do not need/want to sort your data in Power Query.

Einomi's avatar
Einomi
Helper V
3 years ago

lbendlin 

Can you explain shortly why it is not a good idea to sort data in PQ ?

  • PhilippeMuniesa's avatar
    PhilippeMuniesa
    Resolver I
    3 years ago

    Yes, i'm interested too.

    And in my project, i need sort tables because thay are not read in order and for the transformations, i need to get table sorted by date and by item.

    Sincerly

     

    Philippe

     

  • bourquejeff1975's avatar
    bourquejeff1975
    New Member
    1 year ago

    Hi! I'm not sure why PQ strips out sorting when merging queries sometimes, but the fix is this:
    - After sorting the columns, click on the "fx" button in the formula bar (on the left)
    - Put the code after the "=" in parenthesis, and add the "Table.Buffer" function in front

    Example:
    = Table.Buffer(#"Sorted Rows1")

    This somehow makes the sorting "stick" no matter what else you do.