Sorting Version Number with multiple decimal points formatted as text

[pchilton]

I am trying to sort Version numbers that will be displayed on a graph and I am running into the infamous sorting where 2.0.10.0 does not come after 2.0.9.0 because it looks at 1 vs 9 (See Below)  I cannot convert to numeric because of the number of decimals.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I have thought of creating a new column and parsing through to 3rd set and pad with 0 for values with a len of 1 for sorting purposes, but making that happen has been tougher than my beginner skills have conquered.  I originally made a static table with versions and sort value but that had to be edited manually with each version change making it a pain for reporting.   Need something dynamic.

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @pchilton,

Do the following steps on advance query editor:

• Add a custom column based on Version number
• Split the new column by Delimiter "."
• Add a new custom column with the following code:

Text.PadStart ([Valid.1], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.2], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.3], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.4], 2, "0")

• Sort by new column
• Delete Columns created with split delimiter

See below the M Code for a Query editor so you can replicate and look at what I did.

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMtIz0DM00DNQitWBcIz1DA2ROEZGcI4JkioTPWM42xIkHgsA", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Version = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Version", type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Valid", each [Version]),
    #"Split Column by Delimiter" = Table.SplitColumn(#"Added Custom", "Valid", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter(".", QuoteStyle.Csv), {"Valid.1", "Valid.2", "Valid.3", "Valid.4"}),
    #"Added Custom1" = Table.AddColumn(#"Split Column by Delimiter", "Sort_Version", each Text.PadStart ([Valid.1], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.2], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.3], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.4], 2, "0")),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom1",{"Valid.1", "Valid.2", "Valid.3", "Valid.4"}),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Removed Columns",{{"Sort_Version", Order.Ascending}})
in
    #"Sorted Rows"

I assumed that you only go to 2 numbers in each part of the Version that why the Padding of the text for all columns is 2.

Regards,

MFelix

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @pchilton,

Do the following steps on advance query editor:

• Add a custom column based on Version number
• Split the new column by Delimiter "."
• Add a new custom column with the following code:

Text.PadStart ([Valid.1], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.2], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.3], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.4], 2, "0")

• Sort by new column
• Delete Columns created with split delimiter

See below the M Code for a Query editor so you can replicate and look at what I did.

let
    Source = Table.FromRows(Json.Document(Binary.Decompress(Binary.FromText("i45WMtIz0DM00DNQitWBcIz1DA2ROEZGcI4JkioTPWM42xIkHgsA", BinaryEncoding.Base64), Compression.Deflate)), let _t = ((type text) meta [Serialized.Text = true]) in type table [Version = _t]),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Source,{{"Version", type text}}),
    #"Added Custom" = Table.AddColumn(#"Changed Type", "Valid", each [Version]),
    #"Split Column by Delimiter" = Table.SplitColumn(#"Added Custom", "Valid", Splitter.SplitTextByDelimiter(".", QuoteStyle.Csv), {"Valid.1", "Valid.2", "Valid.3", "Valid.4"}),
    #"Added Custom1" = Table.AddColumn(#"Split Column by Delimiter", "Sort_Version", each Text.PadStart ([Valid.1], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.2], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.3], 2, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.4], 2, "0")),
    #"Removed Columns" = Table.RemoveColumns(#"Added Custom1",{"Valid.1", "Valid.2", "Valid.3", "Valid.4"}),
    #"Sorted Rows" = Table.Sort(#"Removed Columns",{{"Sort_Version", Order.Ascending}})
in
    #"Sorted Rows"

I assumed that you only go to 2 numbers in each part of the Version that why the Padding of the text for all columns is 2.

Regards,

MFelix

[umarfarooq4]

Hi,

I have a Rule_Name column which is a text field that I want to have it sorted based on 2.1...,2.2...,2.3....,18.1...,19.1....
For it first I tried to do text before delimiter to remove these number from the Rule_Name column into a new column. However, this "Text Before Delimiter" column is also a text column and I am not able to sort in correct. Could you please assist me with this?

Thanks,

Umar

[MFelix]

Hi @umarfarooq4 

Try to add the following custom colum:

Text.PadStart(Text.BeforeDelimiter([Rule_Name], ".", 0), 3, "0")
  & "."
  & Text.PadStart(
    Text.BeforeDelimiter(Text.AfterDelimiter([Rule_Name], ".", 0), ".", 0), 
    3, 
    "0"
  )
  & "."
  & Text.PadStart(
    Text.BeforeDelimiter(
      Text.BeforeDelimiter(Text.AfterDelimiter([Rule_Name], ".", 1), ".", 1), 
      ".", 
      0
    ), 
    3, 
    "0"
  )
  & "."
  & Text.PadStart(Text.AfterDelimiter( Text.BeforeDelimiter( [Rule_Name] , " ") , ".", 2), 3, "0")

Result below:

[pchilton]

Thank you, that worked!  I appreciate your assistance.

Now I am working on displaying the original format in the sorted order in the visual.    Always something to learn.

[MFelix · Accepted solution]

Hi @pchilton,

On the desktop choose the original column Version and the:

• Modeling
• Sort By Column

In this option select the new Version column to sort the first one by this new one as you can see below the values are sort by default by the sort column.

Regards,

MFelix

[KyleB]

I have a Categorical Line Chart where the Axis is a version number, the legend is the type of Exception and the values are the count of the exception Id's so that we can see what types of exceptions become more and less frequent in each version.

I can create this chart but am having trouble sorting the Axis by increasing version number. I followed your instructions and now my dataset has a column containing the sortable version string, however it does not appear in the charts "Sort by" menu, which may have to do with the grouping/counting behavior.

[MFelix]

Hi @KyleB ,

Are you using that new column as you x-axis on your visual?

The Sort by on the visuals only takes into account information on the values, legends or axis.

Regards,

MFelix

[KyleB]

If I place my zero padded tool_version_sortable column on the Axis I can sort by it. However, we have many versions and I would like to display the un-padded values sorted by the padded ones for visual compactness. Adding both columns to the axis does not make this possible either.

My latest attempt at achieving this behavior is to create a new table from my runs table that has only version numbers and padded version numbers and then add a relation connecting it to the other table. I was hoping that if I placed version number on the axis the many-to-one relation would allow me to sort by the padded versions

[MFelix]

Hi @KyleB ,,

You need to sort the column you want to have in your visual by the one that as the padded version numbers.

Regards,

MFelix

[srelwani]

Hi @MFelix 

If I want to sort version numbers with upto 4 digits between the delimiters like the following numbers. Will the dax query work by just changing the padding number?

Text.PadStart ([Valid.1], 4, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.2], 4, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.3], 4, "0") & "." &
Text.PadStart ([Valid.4], 4, "0")

Example: 

WlanDriverVersion
20.70.4.2
19.51.15.3
15.16.0.2
2023.70.306.2018
20.70.6.1
19.51.8.3
3.0.2.201
15.68.9120.47
2024.0.3.101

[MFelix]

Hi @srelwani ,

I have made a gif image with the steps to make the sort order work with the padded column, in my example I only have two columns (version and the padded one (using your formula).

You need to select the version and then a sort by the other column as you can the numbers get sorted by the padded and not by the defautl text values from the unpadded column, after this change this works for sorting any visual by the version.

Regards,

MFelix

[pchilton]

Thank you again! Problem solved.