Get It Sorted!
Sort One Column by Another Column
Work on a report this week had me solve a sort order issue.
The column chart visual had MONTH_YEAR on the x-axis from the date table - e.g. "Apr-2022" - very common, very easy to read and understand.
Thing was, the sort order wasn't right. Turned out the MONTH_YEAR column was sorted based on the MONTH_YEAR_NUM column (i.e. 42022). It did sort correctly, but wasn’t what I wanted or needed.
In Power Query, I created a new column - YEAR_MONTH_NUM (i.e. 20224). The order/sequence of the digits made a BIG difference - year first then month. It was better, but still not right.
The final key to the puzzle was to ensure the month numbers were all TWO digits - 202204. NOW everything was good and worked the way I needed AND wanted!
When you sort one column in a table by another column(s), make sure the values in those columns are what you need to get the sort order you desire.
