Ascending and descending sort in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This data shows sales amounts for different fruit products.

Cell	Value
A1	Product
B1	Sales
A2	Apples
B2	150
A3	Bananas
B3	120
A4	Cherries
B4	180
A5	Dates
B5	90

Formula Trace

SORT([Product], [Sales], ASC)

Step 1: List of products with sales: [(Apples,150), (Bananas,120), (Cherries,180), (Dates,90)]

Step 2: Sort products by Sales in ascending order

Cell Reference Map

    A        B
1 |Product | Sales
2 |Apples  | 150  
3 |Bananas | 120  
4 |Cherries| 180  
5 |Dates   |  90  

Sort uses column B (Sales) to reorder column A (Product).

The formula sorts the Product column based on the Sales column values.

Result

    A        B
1 |Product | Sales
2 |Dates   |  90  
3 |Bananas | 120  
4 |Apples  | 150  
5 |Cherries| 180  

Products are sorted ascending by sales.

The table shows products sorted from lowest to highest sales.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What product appears first after sorting ascending by sales?

A Apples

B Dates

C Cherries

D Bananas

Key Result

SORT(list_to_sort, sort_by_column, ASC|DESC) sorts the list ascending or descending by the chosen column.