Wrong sorting order with numbers smaller than 1

Jan Schuster

Hi there,

we are using a column "Estimated work in days" with a DropDownList with the values:

0,25

0,5

n.a.

t.b.d.

Please consider "," here in Germany is the decimal separator.

Sorting the rows in a sheet leads to an order were rows having 0,25 or 0,5 are listed below (or on top) of t.b.d.

In reports the sorting order is perfect!

Any suggestions?

Jan

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Comments

J. Craig Williams

Jan,

I could not reproduce this sort problem in either English or after setting my language to Deutsch (Deutschland).

I tried both Dropdown lists and Text/Number columns.

Can you share or send a screen shot?

jcwill23@gmail.com

Craig

Jan Schuster

Hi Craig,

thanks for your help. I can still reproduce the problem.

I've just send you some screenshots by mail.

Jan

J. Craig Williams

Jan,

I can reproduce the problem AND reproduce a solution.

(Before I did these steps, I switched to German, but I don't think that had anything to do with it)

1. I created a new sheet, created a Dropdown List, and populated.

2. Sort was 'broken'

3. Created a Text/Number column, added (manually, not with copy/paste) the same values.

4. Sort was OK on this column.

5. Checked the values for the two columns were the same

=IF([Aufwand in AT]2 = [Column3]2, "Y")

and they were.

So -- reproduced the problem.

Changed the Dropdown list to a Text/Number column.

Changed it back.

Sort works now.

Looks like a bug on Dropdown list creation.

As long as you have all of your desired values in the column, Smartsheet will recreate your list for you when you change back.

Grus.

Craig

Travis

Dropdown lists will sort based on the order of the values in the column properties THEN sort any rows with values that are not included in the column properties. Double click on the Dropdown list column header and look at the predetermined values - this will likely be the order you are seeing.

J. Craig Williams

Nice one Travis.

Useful feature if you know it.

Could that be use for the prioritization request for sorting?

Craig

Jan Schuster

Craig,

thanks for your workaround :-)

Just for myself I could use it, but my team needs the easy way of just a dropdownlist AND a working sorting order.

Travis,

sorting of row values in accordance with Dropdown list entries does not work with values smaller than 1.

Here are 2 screenshots:

Jan

sorted column.png

Travis

I just tested this (with German settings) and you are correct! I think the Dropdown list may be identifying 0,25 and 0,5 as text, rather than numbers due to the comma. If you put the same data into a Text/Number column, the sort works as expected.

I am going to file this as a bug with our QA team and will let you know when I hear back from them.