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Microsoft Idea

Power BI

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Improve sorting

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on 08 Nov 2016 00:04:16

Improve sorting options, maybe also a panel for a custom sorting in each visual object (kind of sorting designer)

Comments (17)
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Satria Priyadi on 21 Jun 2023 19:08:51

RE: Improve sorting

Sorting in PowerBI SUCKS

Follow Tableau please!


Should be able to =

  • Sort based on a metric that's not on the visual (i.e. %change bar chart, but sorted by the TY value(not in visual))
  • Sort column based on measure, column/measure from other table
  • Manual sort
  • Just follow tableau....
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Diego Blatt on 02 Mar 2023 13:06:32

RE: Improve sorting

Please improve the Data Sorting functionality.


The data sorting/sorting experience in Power Bi sucks and takes a long time.


Example: 1 Table with 2 columns, 1 containing Day/Month/Year (unique records) and another of Year/"Name of the Month", when I ask to order the column Year/"Name of the Month" by the column Day/Month/Year , gives error.

Please, basic is the same table Excel does it excellently and masterfully.

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Jeff Fox on 23 Feb 2023 22:19:21

RE: Improve sorting

It should also be easily understood what the sorting hierarchy is on a report...Sort Level 1, 2, 3 etc


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Chris Clegg on 09 May 2022 09:53:04

RE: Improve sorting

I just want to be able to sort fields, especially dates, in ascending and descending order per visual. I don't want to duplicate data and create separate sort columns per sort order.

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Grant Humphries on 29 Mar 2021 01:08:00

RE: Improve sorting

It's not at all easy to sort a stacked column by your own custom order settings. Values such as Low, Medium, High, Critical display in alphabetical order and it's a nightmare to try to set your own order (currently still unsuccessful even after following a tutorial). Custom sort order has been available in Excel for ages.

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Jeff Ballard on 12 Sep 2020 12:11:05

RE: Improve sorting

Agree with Power BI Admin. The Tableau implementation of this feature is simple and intuitive.

We are evaluating moving to Power BI from Tableau, but Tableau's custom sorting option is so much easier to do. The Power BI approach of having to create special sort columns is more of a hack than a feature.

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Clara Seaman on 17 Jul 2020 15:16:56

RE: Improve sorting

I would like to see a sort option for items that are in the dataset that are not in the visual. I have been trying to create column charts which have text names on the x-axis and sort them in a custom order. There should be a quick way for my visual to reference a sort order column in my table without me having to add it to the tooltip or values where it is either visible or I have to do an odd workaround to hide the dummy variable data.

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Christian Renlund on 06 Jul 2020 00:14:21

RE: Improve sorting

Why not add the sorting functionality from the pie chart to all visualizations?

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Gary Thomann on 06 Jul 2020 00:09:30

RE: Improve sorting

Hierarchical sorting mechanism please ...

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Jan-Eric Ramberg on 06 Jul 2020 00:05:48

RE: Improve sorting

You should be, like in Excel, be able to sort a matrix by 1st, 2nd, 3rd key etc.. Preferably to right-click on the columns and choose Ascending-Descending