Force/Custom Sorting in Cognos 1

[KristieLee1]

Hello. In Cognos 8.3, is there a way to select the order that items appear in a list or crosstab?
I have a list of products(in my products data item):
Shoes
Coats
Hats
Umbrellas

The sort options will either be Coats, Hats, Shoes, Umbrellas or Umbrellas, Shoes, Hats, Coats; as it appears that I can only sort a-z or z-a.

Is there any way that I can pick the order of the items? I have a report where I need to keep certain products together, even though they are not in alpha order.

I've read a bit about a sort key...but not sure if that would work for me here. Thank you!

 

[blom0344]

You can define an additional data-item like:

CASE WHEN
[PRODUCT] = 'Coats' then 'A'
WHEN
[PRODUCT] = 'Hats' then 'B'
...
...
ELSE 'ZZZ' END

And use this one for the sort. For al ist you may need to associate it with the list through properties. For a crosstab you will probably need to use it (as no properties are available) and then hide it

Obviously, this will be only workable for small distinct set of values..

Ties Blom

 

[KristieLee1]

Ties....worked like a charm. Thank you!