Tableau sort is the process of arranging or ordering the data in Ascending Order or Descending Order. For example, when we show products by region report, it would be helpful and practical if we show the products in any manner.
In this article, we will show you how to perform sorting in Tableau reports with examples. We will use the report we created in our previous article for this demo.
Tableau Sort from Axis
There are multiple ways to perform sorting in Tableau. From the below screenshot, you can observe that when you hover over the Sales Amount, a tiny little button will display near that. You can use this button to sort the Sales Amount data in Ascending or Descending orders.
For now, we selected the Tableau Sort in Ascending Order.
Once you click that button, Color (group) data will be sorted by its sales amount in Ascending Order. Visit Data Labels in Reports to understand the Tableau Data Source.
Tableau Sort ASC and DESC using Toolbar
In the second method, click the Sort button in the Tableau toolbar. As you can see, when you hover over the button, it will show the tooltip saying that it’s going to order the data by Color (group) in Ascending by SalesAmount.
Once you click the button, Color (group) data will be ordered by its sales amount in Ascending.
For the Descending order, Click the next sort button in the toolbar. The screenshot below shows that when you hover over it, Tableau shows the tooltip saying that it will sort the data by Color (group) in descending by its sales amount.
Once you click on the button Color (group) data will order by its sales amount in Descending as shown below.
Tableau sort from Columns or Rows Shelf
From the Tableau row Shelf, Select and Right Click on the Dimension on which you want to perform the sort. Please select the Sort.. option from the context menu.
Once you click on the option, a new window will open to configure the Tableau sorting options. By default, data will be in the order we specified in the data source. But we can change using the options specified in this section.
sort by field
If you select Tableau Sort by Field, we must choose the field name from the drop-down list. Remember, if you are viewing Sales amount data in a report, you should select the same field here. Otherwise, the results may look strange.
sort by Manual
If you choose the Sort by option Manual, we can manually change the order using the Up and down buttons.
For now, we selected the option as Field and selected Sales Amount in descending.
Once you click the OK button, sort the Color (group) data and order by its sales amount in Descending.
Until now, it looks easy to implement it. Because we are performing sort operations on Tableau Color (group), which is lying inside the English Country Region Name. Let’s see what will happen if we perform on the Country column. Select and Right Click on the English Country Region name Dimension and select the Sort.. option from the context menu
Here also, we have chosen the option as Tableau sort Field and selected Sales Amount in descending order.
Once you click the OK button, you may be surprised by the outcome. If you observe the below screenshot, the Country is ordered by its sales amount in Descending. But you can’t identify it. If you look closely, the United States is in the first place, and the united kingdom is in 3rd place.
To understand sorting better, let’s remove the color (group) from the Tableau Columns cards and see the result.
