Table.Sort

Syntax

Table.Sort(table as table, comparisonCriteria as any) as table

About

Sorts the table using the list of one or more column names and optional comparisonCriteria in the form { { col1, comparisonCriteria }, {col2} }.

Because Power Query sometimes offloads certain operations to backend data sources (known as "folding"), and also sometimes optimizes queries by skipping operations that aren't strictly necessary, in general there's no guarantee about how rows with identical sort columns will be ordered. For example, you can't assume that the first row with a unique set of column values will be sorted first. If you want the sort order to behave predictably, first buffer the table using Table.Buffer.

Example 1

Sort the table on column "OrderID".

Usage

Table.Sort(
    Table.FromRecords({
        [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5.0],
        [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25.0],
        [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200.0],
        [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2.0],
        [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20.0],
        [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
        [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25]
    }),
    {"OrderID"}
)

Output

Table.FromRecords({
    [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100],
    [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5],
    [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25],
    [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200],
    [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2],
    [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20],
    [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
    [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100],
    [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25]
})

Example 2

Sort the table on column "OrderID" in descending order.

Usage

Table.Sort(
    Table.FromRecords({
        [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5.0],
        [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25.0],
        [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200.0],
        [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2.0],
        [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20.0],
        [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
        [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25]
    }),
    {"OrderID", Order.Descending}
)

Output

Table.FromRecords({
    [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
    [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100],
    [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
    [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20],
    [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2],
    [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200],
    [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25],
    [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5],
    [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100]
})

Example 3

Sort the table on column "CustomerID" then "OrderID", with "CustomerID" being in ascending order.

Usage

Table.Sort(
    Table.FromRecords({
        [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5.0],
        [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25.0],
        [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200.0],
        [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2.0],
        [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20.0],
        [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
        [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100.0],
        [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25]
    }),
    {
        {"CustomerID", Order.Ascending},
        "OrderID"
    }
)

Output

Table.FromRecords({
    [OrderID = 1, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Fishing rod", Price = 100],
    [OrderID = 2, CustomerID = 1, Item = "1 lb. worms", Price = 5],
    [OrderID = 6, CustomerID = 1, Item = "Tackle box", Price = 20],
    [OrderID = 3, CustomerID = 2, Item = "Fishing net", Price = 25],
    [OrderID = 4, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Fish tazer", Price = 200],
    [OrderID = 5, CustomerID = 3, Item = "Bandaids", Price = 2],
    [OrderID = 7, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25],
    [OrderID = 8, CustomerID = 5, Item = "Fishing Rod", Price = 100],
    [OrderID = 9, CustomerID = 6, Item = "Bait", Price = 3.25]
})

Related content

Comparison criteria