Persistent Sorting

Suggestion Box
1

I like to use the drag and drop functionality quite a bit with my tables, and when sorting is in place, it doesn’t allow for drag and drop. However, sometimes I want my information arranged based on the way I have it sorted to start to then be able to drag and drop from there.

I would like a way to permanently apply sorting to a list and then lock it in, so that when sorting is cleared, the table reverts to the “sorted” state. While I know there would be a variety of workarounds to do so (sort, copy, unsort, paste over; use Excel, etc.) it would be nice to be able to run a permanent sort, similar to how you can copy a column and convert to editable values.

2

What you are looking for will break existing features of Coda.

When it comes to the sequence of a table, there are three different ways:

  1. Entry sequence. When a row is created, it gets a unique rowID(). If you add this property to a column, you can sort on this to get the entry sequence. This is handy if you want to have the most recent entry at the top of the table.
  2. Sort sequence. Self explanatory.
  3. Table order. This a little more nebulous. You can grab a row, and drag it to a specific place in the table. E.g. you enter one, three and two. You can then drag row two between one and three, and it will stay there.

A “persistent” sort would break the Table Order feature.

3

Appreciate the feedback, but the ask wasn’t to break tables and sorting :grinning: , it was to prevent me needing to drag dozens of items through the table order to make the default arrangement appear for my team in way I want it to, while still allowing for useful functionality like drag and drop for ongoing maintenance of the table.

The team at Coda has consistently exceeded my expectations with added functionality since I started using it 5-6 years ago, so I bet they could find a way to do this. Maybe this looks like resetting the table order based on the sort configuration. Maybe it looks like something else. Either way, it would be valuable.

4

hi @JonO , did you consider to sort via the function Sort() and using the inner sort option: sortby:

Sort(True(),Sortby: "cows")

You cannot manually intervene in a function driven set up (sorting on table level).

Cheers, Christiaan

5

Yes! this drives me crazy. What I usually do is:

  1. turn on the sort
  2. once it is all in the right order, delete the sort. this should not change the order.
  3. use drag and drop as needed.
  4. turn the sort back on.
6

ok, disregard this! you are asking about something different (which I also want)!