How to sort a Cross Table when there are multiple columns on the y-axis?

How to sort a Cross Table when there are multiple columns on the y-axis?

When a cross table is created with multiple columns on the y-axis, sorting does not necessarily work as expected. For example, if the cross table has three columns on the y-axis, [Column1], [Column2], and [Column3] along with a data column, the customer may want to sort based on the data in that data column. This will not work because Spotfire does a nested sort, so it will sort [Column3] within each value of [Column2], and [Column2] within each value of [Column1].  See the screen shot in the attached (Filename: Sort cross table.jpg). Notice that the sorting of "Sum(Fuel)" is broken down into groups by [CarName], [Model], and [Type]. A global sort was added in Spotfire Analyst 7.7 and higher.

In Spotfire Analyst, 7.6 and lower, there is also a workaround. Use the concatenate() function to create a single calculated column comprised of the three columns to improve sorting:

     concatenate([Column1], " ", [Column2], " ", [Column3])

or you can add commas between the columns to make it easier to read:

     concatenate([Column1], ", ", [Column2], ", ", [Column3])

See the screen shot in the attached (Filename: Sort with concatenate.jpg). TS-30911