Sort Rows

Transform

Reorder rows by one or more columns. Each criterion specifies a column and a direction (ascending or descending); criteria are applied in priority order, so the second criterion only breaks ties left by the first. Use it to produce deterministic outputs, group related rows together, or rank records before downstream processing.

Local processing

This transform runs entirely in your browser. No data is sent to external servers.

How it works

Sort Rows reads the entire input into memory before producing output, so it requires the full dataset (it is not a streaming transform). On large inputs this means peak memory scales with row count.

Each sort criterion compares cells with a hybrid rule: if both cells parse as numbers, comparison is numeric; otherwise it falls back to locale-aware string comparison. Empty cells (empty string, null, undefined) always sort to the end regardless of direction. The sort is stable — rows that compare equal keep their original input order.

If no criteria are configured, rows pass through unchanged in input order.

Input: One tabular data connection. Output: The same columns and rows, reordered.

Options

Sort Criteria

An ordered list of { column, direction } pairs. The first criterion is applied first; subsequent criteria break ties.

Field	Type	Description
column	string	Column name to sort by. Required.
direction	"asc" | "desc"	Ascending or descending. Required.

Defaults to an empty list (passthrough). At least one criterion must be added before the transform changes row order.

Examples

Rank customers by purchase total, highest first

You want to rank customers from largest to smallest order amount.

Before:

customer	order_total	tier
Acme Corp	2400	standard
Beta Inc	7300	pro
Gamma LLC	1100	standard
Delta Co	12000	pro

Configuration: One criterion — column: order_total, direction: desc.

After:

customer	order_total	tier
Delta Co	12000	pro
Beta Inc	7300	pro
Acme Corp	2400	standard
Gamma LLC	1100	standard

Multi-column sort: tier first, then amount within tier

You want pro customers grouped together, ordered by amount descending within each tier.

Before:

customer	tier	amount
Acme Corp	standard	250
Beta Inc	pro	750
Gamma LLC	standard	100
Delta Co	pro	1200
Echo Ltd	pro	500

Configuration: Two criteria — first tier ascending, then amount descending.

After:

customer	tier	amount
Delta Co	pro	1200
Beta Inc	pro	750
Echo Ltd	pro	500
Acme Corp	standard	250
Gamma LLC	standard	100

Empty cells sort to the end

You want to rank products by review count but rows with no reviews should not appear at the top of an ascending sort.

Before:

product	reviews
Widget	42
Gadget
Gizmo	7
Doohickey
Thingamajig	18

Configuration: One criterion — column: reviews, direction: asc.

After:

product	reviews
Gizmo	7
Thingamajig	18
Widget	42
Gadget
Doohickey

Tips and Edge Cases

• Empty cells always sort to the end, regardless of direction. An ascending sort puts empty values last; a descending sort also puts them last. To put empty values first, add a Computed Column upstream that maps empty to a placeholder value, then sort on that. See apps/web/src/transforms/sort-rows/logic.ts:22-24.
• Numeric vs string comparison is hybrid, and parseFloat consumes only the leading numeric prefix. If both cells parse as numbers, the comparison is numeric (so "9" sorts before "10"). But parseFloat("2025-06-30") returns 2025 — date strings collapse to their year prefix, which means ISO dates that share a year compare equal and stay in input order. To sort dates reliably, store them as a sortable scalar upstream (e.g. ISO year column, Unix timestamp, or YYYYMMDD integer). See apps/web/src/transforms/sort-rows/logic.ts:27-34.
• The sort is stable. Rows that compare equal on all criteria preserve their original input order. This means appending a unique tie-breaker column is rarely necessary.

Related Transforms

• Filter Rows — remove rows that don’t match a condition (Sort Rows reorders, never removes).
• Remove Duplicates — remove duplicate rows (combine with Sort Rows to choose which duplicate is kept).