Custom Group Order in Reports

Philip Kolmar

Right now, you're only able to order things by ascending and descending, but we often group things by status so it would be great to be able to custom order groups within reports by earliest stage in a process to the latest.

Jen Lange

@Philip Kolmar , in that case, I would recommend creating a column with an IF statement that converts the imported data column from the external source into the format I inferred above. You can also make it a column formula, so that you can easily adjust if the external data is modified. Then you can group and sort by that column.

=IF("External Stage A", "01-Stage A", IF("External Stage B", "02-Stage B", IF("External Stage C", "03-Stage C","")))

Let me know if that works for you.

Jen Lange

@Philip Kolmar , I think that's a great enhancement idea. Have you submitted an enhancement for alternative group sort options?

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form?EQBCT=739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409

In the interim, what I commonly do is add a number and dash in front of the attribute that I want to sort by to enable an effective generic ascending sort. For example, "01-First Stage", "02-Second Stage", "03-Third Stage", etc.

Philip Kolmar

Thank you, @Jen Lange ! I just submitted the enhancement request via the form you just provided and although I won't be able to implement your recommendation in this instance because the data I'm organizing is imported from an outside source that I don't have control over, I do think it's a great workaround.

Jen Lange

@Philip Kolmar , in that case, I would recommend creating a column with an IF statement that converts the imported data column from the external source into the format I inferred above. You can also make it a column formula, so that you can easily adjust if the external data is modified. Then you can group and sort by that column.

=IF("External Stage A", "01-Stage A", IF("External Stage B", "02-Stage B", IF("External Stage C", "03-Stage C","")))

Let me know if that works for you.

Philip Kolmar

Great idea! Thank you, Jen.

Jen Lange

@Philip Kolmar, thank you for your engagement and contribution to our community. Your inquiry and enhancement request is likely to assist other members across time.

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Happy Friday 😊