Sort a Table

Sorts a table by one or more columns with optional ascending/descending order.

Overview

This procedure sorts a table by one or more columns. The sort order (ascending or descending) can be specified. Optionally, you can specify a list of sort orders for multiple columns.

This is useful in a variety of situations—for example, you can sorting a score or sales column, arrange items alphabetically by name or category, or sort by date to show the most recent entries first.

Input Concepts

Concept	Type	Description	Default	Required
table	table	The table to be sorted.	No default	Yes
column	text	The column(s) by which the table should be sorted. Can be a single column name or comma-separated list.	No default	Yes
order	text	Optional sort order for single column. Format: ascending / descending column_name	No default	No
orders	text	Optional list of sort orders for multiple columns. Format: ascending / descending column_name for each column.	No default	No

Output Concepts

Concept	Description
table	The sorted table.

Examples

For these examples, say we create a table using the following command:

create a table where
    the column names are "name", "age" and "address"

1. Sort with Default Ascending Order

In this example, no order is specified, so the default sorting order is ascending.

sort the table by "age"

2. Sort with Default Descending Order

In this example, the "age" column is sorted in descending order.

sort the table by "age" where
    the order is "descending age"

3. Sort Multiple Columns

In this example, both the "city" and "age" columns are sorted in different orders.

sort the table by "city, age" where
    the orders are "descending city", "ascending age"