Sort order issue

Question

I'm having an issue sorting data in ascending order.

Right now the sort order is:
1.0.0
10.0.0
10.0.1
11.0.0
2.0.0
2.0.1
3.0.0
3.0.1
3.1.0

What I want is:
1.0.0
2.0.0
2.0.1
3.0.0
3.0.1
3.1.0
10.0.0
10.0.1
11.0.0

How can I achieve this? The datatype can't be number or currency because of the 2 decimals, so I used text-field.

Answer 1

Since you are using strings as the data type, you need to format the data differently so that they sort correctly based on alphabetical order, ie

01.0.0
02.0.0
02.0.1
03.0.0
03.0.1
03.1.0
10.0.0
10.0.1
11.0.0

Answer 2

You can write values as 00.00.000 (eg. 01.11.345). Not the best solution but the easiest one.

More complex one is to write your own Custom Field Type.

Also take a look at SharePoint MaskedEdit Field Control and Input-Masking in SharePoint Forms. Not exactly what are you looking for but just as idea (never tested it myself).

Answer 3

Your data is formatted as x.y.z, and you need 3 ordering rules: x ascending, then y ascending, then z ascending. You could use 3 columns to store x, y and z. You would apply the sorting criteria, and for rendering you would use a calculated column: =x+"."+y+"."+z

If it's too many columns to handle, then you would have to use the 00.00.000 format suggested by Vedran. If you don't want to do this manually, you would again use a calculated column that will do the formatting (definitely not a simple formula).

Answer 4

DISCLAIMER: NOt sure if code based solution would work for the user as it is unclear to me where exactly it is being used. But if user has opportunity to write code to sort the versions, following algorithm is strong and will work without any workarounds like prefixing with 0 etc.

ANSWER:

You just need to write a custom comparer and sort it using custom comparer. Below is the logic to convert version of above format into a integer value and use the underlying integer value to sort it.

This is a console app which I just wrote but you get the idea! (Note that I have not put the validation, always assume right input)

class Program
    {
        public class VersionComparer : IComparer<string>
        {
            public int Compare(string x, string y)
            {
                string[] xVersionParts = x.Split('.');
                string[] yVersionParts = y.Split('.');
                if (xVersionParts[0] != yVersionParts[0])
                return int.Parse(xVersionParts[0]).CompareTo(int.Parse(yVersionParts[0]));
            else if (xVersionParts[1] != yVersionParts[1])
                return int.Parse(xVersionParts[1]).CompareTo(int.Parse(yVersionParts[1]));
            else
                return int.Parse(xVersionParts[2]).CompareTo(int.Parse(yVersionParts[2]));
            }
        }
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<string> versions = new List<string>();
            versions.Add("1.0.0");
            versions.Add("10.0.0");
            versions.Add("10.0.1");
            versions.Add("11.0.0");
            versions.Add("2.0.0");
            versions.Add("2.0.1");
            versions.Add("3.0.0");
            versions.Add("3.1.0");            
            versions.Add("3.0.1");

            versions.Sort();
            Console.WriteLine("Before Custom Comparer...");
            foreach (string version in versions)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(version);
            }


            versions.Sort(new VersionComparer());
            Console.WriteLine("After Custom Comparer...");
            foreach (string version in versions)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(version);
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

Here are the results....

Answer 5

Paul's solution is the way to go but sometimes changing your data format just for sorting just isn't in the cards. If that's the case, implement a new column in your list that you can use to sort on. It's a little hacky but you gotta do what you gotta do.