Version 2021

Advanced sorting: sorting the page-by list

Pages group report data into logical subsets, and allow you to view one subset (or page) at a time. Page-by makes viewing a report easier than scrolling through long lists of data. You can sort how the pages are displayed in the drop-down list of pages. You can select what objects to sort, the sorting order, the sorting criteria (for example, the attribute form on which to sort), and the position of the totals.

For example, the following report contains Region, Employee, the Revenue metric, and the Rank metric. It is paged by Quarter, so that a user can select a particular quarter to display. Notice that the Total is displayed first in the list, followed by quarters from the earliest to the most recent. Sorting the page-by list allowed the report designer to select the order of the quarters and whether the total is displayed at the beginning or the end of the list.

Report showing sorted page-by list, with Total at the top

To sort the page-by list

  1. Run the desired report, which must have at least one page-by field. (For steps to run a report, see Running a report.)

  2. From the Data menu, choose Advanced Sorting. The Sorting dialog box opens.

  3. Click the Pages tab.

  4. Click Add. One of the pages from the report appears in the list of Currently defined sorts.

  5. If the page is not the desired page-by field, click in the Sort by cell. A drop-down list appears. From the list, select the page-by field to sort by.

  6. To change the Criteria, such as ID or Description, to sort by, click in the cell, then select the criteria from the drop-down list. If you select Default, the default sort of the attribute form, which is set in the Attribute Editor, is used.

  7. To change the Order of the sort, click in the cell and choose Ascending or Descending.

  8. To change the Total Position, which is the location of the subtotals in the page-by list, click in the Total Position cell. From the drop-down list, select one of the following positions:

    • Bottom, which positions the Total page at the bottom of the page-by list

    • Top, which positions the Total page at the bottom of the page-by list

    • Inherit, which positions the Total page as defined in the Subtotals dialog box

  9. If you are sorting on a custom group, Parent Position is available. This option sets the position of the element headers relative to the child elements. For example, a header could be All Age Groups, while the child elements are Children, Teenagers, 20-29, and so on.

    • To change the Parent Position, click in the cell and choose Top, Bottom, or Default(which uses the position specified in the custom group definition).

  10. To add another page-by field to sort by (referred to as hierarchical sorting), click Add again. Repeat steps 5-9 to modify the sort.

  11. If multiple pages are listed under Sort by, the up and down arrows become active. Highlight a row and click the Up or Down arrow to reposition the selected item in the table.

  12. To remove a page from the list of Currently defined sorts, select the page and click Remove.

  13. Once the sort order is defined, click OK to return to the report.

  14. To retain the new sort settings, save the report. How?

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