Custom Group Sort Order in Report

AllisonCS

Hello,

I have seen variations of this same question in a few places, but none that answers my actual question explicitly. It seems the overall solution would be for Smartsheets to enable custom sorting, which many (including myself) have submitted the request for.

I have a prioritized to-do list. I have a report grouped by priority. I want it to sort: high, medium, low, instead of alphabetically (high, low, medium). I've seen suggestions to add a number in front of the priority rank, but that looks sloppy for the intended audience. I've seen the suggestion to create a helper column and use the IF formula to create the numerical ranking. However, when I group by the helper column (to get it in the right order), the group title at the top of each section is then just the number from the helper column. Is there a workaround that permits me to group by priority and have it ordered High, Medium, Low?

Thank you,

Allison

ECarlson_PCG

Hi Allison,

No. There is no exact solve for what you want to see.
You have noted the popular suggested workarounds, and because High, Medium, Low is all text, it will continue to be alphabetical. Any other "grouping" would show those titles at the top instead.

2 additional alternatives that still would not be grouped how you want…
A symbol column - Red, Yellow, Green, would sort in that order. You could call it Priority Health, write a formula: =IF(Priority@row = "High", "Red", IF(Priority@row = "Medium", "Yellow", IF(Priority@row = "Low", "Green"))) to it and use it for grouping as a helper column.
Note: Red, Yellow, Green indicators would be the top sections of the grouping but you could pull in the Priority text column visually and count on that column still.

Depending on your report sourcing 1/multiple sheets… If it was sourcing 1 sheet:
You could write CountIF formulas to a new sheet where Priority is in order: High, Medium, Low to generate counts for each and build a Graph on a Dashboard maintaining your preferred order.
When someone clicks on the Graph, it could open a report sorted by a hierarchy helper column (no grouping) related to Priority.

Best,

Emily