Automatically Sort Rows in Sheets

ro.fei · 03/24/23

As rows get added & cell values change, it would great if we could automatically sort them in the sheets themselves instead of having to set up reports. Adding the ability to do this in a workflow would be a fantastic addition. Right now we have to do it manually.

F van Rensburg · 06/20/22

It would be of great help if you can switch on an auto sort of rows based on a column of your choice.

Then when users gets notifications via email, the content can already be sorted in the order you wish.

Jake Gustafson · 06/20/22

This would be very helpful, especially when there are multi-row sorts to do when new data is entered. I'd love to see this as an automation similar to the Move/Copy Rows. Sort Rows based on a trigger.

CricketCO · 06/22/22

This has clearly been submitted multiple times before over the past two+ years based on the community discussions, but here's what we need:

In grid view, set up a rule to autosort every time the sheet is loaded.

Use case:

My team needs to sort all of our projects into buckets that show all the projects for each business unit grouped together. I set up a hidden column called "Sort by BU" and created mock "header" rows in grid view since headers are also not supported in Smartsheet (another feature you need).

I unhid that column for this screenshot:

By labeling the "header" rows in the hidden column "A, B, C," etc., and sorting first by the BU column and then by the "Sort by BU" column, I am able to keep the "headers" at the top of each BU section.

In this screenshot, this is just a small mocked up sheet. We will have hundreds of projects in here and I really need them to sort properly every time without someone having to reapply the sort every time we open the sheet in case a new project has been added. There is a large risk that the sort will be applied incorrectly or forgotten otherwise.

marc4 · 07/11/22

We solved this problem with the api. We run a single line curl command every hour

curl --silent "https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/sheets/$Sheet_ID/sort" -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"sortCriteria": [{"columnId": $Column_ID, "direction": "ASCENDING"}]}

/marc

Serena Batten · 07/27/22

We love this idea! The ability to configure your sheet to automatically sort is part of our long-term roadmap. We'd like to learn more about your specific requirements. If you'd be willing to chat, it would help us understand how this feature will work the best for you. Please schedule time at https://bit.ly/3Jbcfos.

amorrow · 08/02/22

I second this idea and think it would also be useful to be able to sort our columns in Card view.

Cleversheet · 10/17/22

Related: we need to be able to save sorts. As a Smartsheet user since 2011 I recognized this need early on, and I’ve been asking for this for over ten years.

lindsayjones · 11/14/22

It would be helpful to be able to automatically sort rows within a column from highest to lowest - that way when we enter a new value, it will automatically sort within the columns after we refresh the page. As of now, whenever we enter a new value we have to remember to re-sort it every time.

Steven S · 11/30/22

a sort function that is persistent

Audrey Howard · 01/06/23

Hello! I'm hoping one of the next big waves of feature updates could be improving the 'sort' and 'search' options.

It gets frustrating having to re-sort my rows constantly while my data gets manually or automatically changed frequently. There should be an option to 'lock' a sorting option so everything auto-sorts based on one or two columns, and then have the admin disable or change as needed. Similar to how reports are able to group. For example, I always need my sheets sorted by status: new/not started at the top and completed at the bottom, AND then by date assigned, newest on top, etc. As rows are marked as complete, or the status changes to 'hold' or 'in progress', the rows don't move automatically and the sheet starts to look very unorganized.

Also, with search (CNTRL+F search within the sheet, not the overall smartsheet search, which I do love!), I wish there was an easier way to just see the 3 or 4 items that come up when you search that selection, without having to create a whole filter or click next and click through all of them. I don't want to keep having to make filters that say 'show if order number equals 450629830', isolate those, do what I need to do, then delete or edit that filter again. It's just a really long process, having an option to 'view all' or something similar in search would be helpful.

Matocanovic · 01/06/23

It's only one more request for column auto sort or even an workaround.

Adrian Mandile CHESS · 02/06/23

Hi @Audrey Howard,

Is it possible for your sorting requirement to be achieved just by creating/using sorted Reports, instead of regularly re-sorting the underlying Sheets themselves. In this way the Sheet becomes a more 'background' data store of task 'records' (rows) as they are added (using Forms?) to the top or bottom of the Sheet.

Reports are configurable to 'remember' up to 3 levels of sort by specified columns (and within Groups). A Report could also be configured to totally filter out the 'Completed' status items, or only ones that are overdue, etc.

I find using Reports more instead of relying so much on only Sheets is a better way to direct the users' work.

D.W. · 02/17/23

I agree with the above. The API seems like a lot of work. Heck - A workflow would work too - if I can default in a value, why can't I do an autosort that way as well?

TomG · 03/14/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/337728#Comment_337728

Hi Serena, are you still looking for input on sorting? I would be happy to schedule some time. This is a needed feature not only for myself, but our internal customers are current struggling with this issue as we have multiple folks working in a shared sheet with different sorting needs. They are constantly resorting every time they refresh their view which is happening many times a day.

Serena Batten · 03/20/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/367229#Comment_367229

Hi Tom. Yes, I would still like to hear your thoughts on how you would like auto sorting to work. Please feel free to use this link to schedule some time. I look forward to hearing about your use cases in more detail.

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Automatically Sort Rows in Sheets

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