Manual sort order in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data by category with categories Medium, High, and Low.

Cell	Value
A1	Category
B1	Sales
A2	Medium
B2	300
A3	High
B3	500
A4	Low
B4	200

Formula Trace

IF [Category] = 'High' THEN 1 ELSEIF [Category] = 'Medium' THEN 2 ELSE 3 END

Step 1: [Category] = 'High'

Step 2: IF TRUE THEN 1

Step 3: ELSEIF [Category] = 'Medium'

Step 4: IF TRUE THEN 2

Step 5: ELSE 3

Step 6: Resulting ranks: High=1, Medium=2, Low=3

Cell Reference Map

   A       B
1 Category Sales
2 Medium   300
3 High     500
4 Low      200

[Category] values in column A are referenced in the formula.

The formula uses the Category column (A2:A4) to assign manual sort ranks.

Result

   A       B      C
1 Category Sales  Rank
2 High     500    1
3 Medium   300    2
4 Low      200    3

Categories sorted manually by Rank column: High first, then Medium, then Low.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What rank does the category 'Medium' get in the manual sort order?

A 1

B 2

C 3

D 0

Key Result

IF [Category] = 'Value1' THEN 1 ELSEIF [Category] = 'Value2' THEN 2 ELSE 3 END assigns manual sort ranks.