Sorting Data

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Sort data

Sort orders

You can apply sorts to the values displayed in tables, sections and charts to organize the order in which values are displayed in a report.

By default, the sort starts from the first column.

When you perform sorts, the following sort orders are available:

Sort OrderDescription
Default

A default sort order is sometimes referred to as the natural order.

Depending on the type of data in the column or row, the results are sorted as follows: Numerical order for numeric data ; Chronological order for dates ; Alphabetical order for alphanumeric data.

Ascending

When selected, the results are arranged in ascending order with the smallest value at the top of the column and the highest value at the bottom. For example, 100, 200, and 300 or California, Colorado, and Florida.

Descending

When selected, the results are arranged in descending order with the highest value at the top of the column and the smallest value at the bottom. For ex-ample, 300, 200, and 100 or Florida, Colorado, and California.

Custom

With a Custom sort, you define your own sort order.

Apply the sort to be ascending or descending on columns or rows. An ascending or descending sort impacts only the table in which you apply the sort and is independent of sorts applied to other tables.

However, Custom sorts are applied to an object. As a result, all tables in the document that use the object inherit the custom sort. Applying a custom sort sorts the data in the data provider, not just in the table.

You can add a temporary value, which does not exist in the database to your document and then include the value in your custom sort.

Note
In SAP BI 4.3, you can sort data in Reading mode.

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