Sorting

Liz_Snavely

Hi -

We number tasks in our Smartsheet grid using the format XXX.X. When we sort in descending order, the numbers are not in order. For example 200.0 appears below 001.0. Since it is in descending order 200.0 should appear before 001.0.

We also want to start using four digits before the decimal point and want to know if the sort will confuse the order if we have a 001.0 and a 1000.0.

John_Foster

Hi @Liz_Snavely I believe this is because it is treating those beginning with 0 as text rather than numbers.

If you add a leading 0 to them all they do sort correctly.

Hope this helps!

John

Zachary Hall

Hi @Liz_Snavely,

Because of the leading zeros before I suspect that the "number" 001.0 is actually being stored as a string (text) and not a value (number). Sorting will not play well mixing values and strings, nor even strings by themselves unless you are wanting the alphabetical sort.

If it is important to appear that way, you could create a column to the right (hiding later if you like) that takes the VALUE() of this column and then sort by the new column.

Hope this helps!

John_Foster

Hi @Liz_Snavely I believe this is because it is treating those beginning with 0 as text rather than numbers.

If you add a leading 0 to them all they do sort correctly.

Hope this helps!

John

Zachary Hall

Hi @Liz_Snavely,

Because of the leading zeros before I suspect that the "number" 001.0 is actually being stored as a string (text) and not a value (number). Sorting will not play well mixing values and strings, nor even strings by themselves unless you are wanting the alphabetical sort.

If it is important to appear that way, you could create a column to the right (hiding later if you like) that takes the VALUE() of this column and then sort by the new column.

Hope this helps!