Sorting the Table Visual

There are two methods for sorting the rows of the table visual.

Sorting by Table Columns

You can sort the table in two distinct visual on column values.

To do that, hover over a column heading, and click the (sort) widget that appears to the right. This sorts the table in ascending order of values. Click (ascending sort) widget at the top of the column, and the table sorts in descending order. You can then click to reverse the sort. To sort on another column, hover over its title and repeat.

Sorting tables by visible columns

Sorting by Tooltip Fields

A major advantage of placing fields on the Tooltip shelf of table visuals, as described in Using the Tooltips Shelf, is that it enables us to sort data rows by the values of these tooltip fields, which do not appear in the visual.

For example, if we place Population and GDP per Capita into the Tooltip, and sort Population in ascending order, we will get the following results:

Sorting tables by fields on the Tooltip shelf, ascending by population

If we reverse the order, putting GDP per Capita ahead of Population, sort GDP per Capita in descending order, and remove the sort on Population, we will get the following results:

Sorting tables by fields on the Tooltip shelf, descending by GDP

Lastly, if we use GDP per Capita (descending first sort) and Population (ascending second sort), we can clearly see the secondary sort when the primary sort values are equivalent. And no, life expectancy is not really NULL, it is just missing from the dataset.

Sorting tables by fields on the Tooltip shelf, with primary sort results are equal, and secondary ascending sort by Population