A Table or Summary report displays a list of records. But which record should come first? Which ones go together?
Using the Report Builder, you specify custom sorting and grouping for your reports. Custom sorting lets you specify which records should appear first, and how all records should be ordered. Grouping lets you group "like" records together; You tell QuickBase how to group records in your report.
Note: If you don't choose custom sorting, QuickBase automatically sorts records using the default sort order specified in the default report. You can change the default sort order by editing the default report. Choose Customize > Tables > Reports tab > Default Report (built-in) to edit the default report.
In this topic:
When sorting, you can choose either of these options:
Sort from low to high by--QuickBase puts the lowest values from the field you're about to choose at the top of your list. For dates, QuickBase orders from earliest to latest. Text fields are sorted in alphabetical order.
Sort from high to low by --QuickBase puts the highest values from the field you're about to choose at the top of your list. For dates, QuickBase orders from latest to earliest. Text fields are sorted in reverse alphabetical order.
To specify sorting:
In the Sorting and Grouping section of the Report Builder screen, choose Custom Sorting/Grouping.
Choose to sort only by selecting a sort order. If you want to group as well, choose one of the Sort and Group selections.
Choose a field by which to sort.
If you choose both sorting and grouping, you specify a field by which you want to both sort AND group records.
When you specify your sorting and grouping field, QuickBase displays another dropdown letting you indicate the increment by which you want to group. The choices you see here depend upon the field type of your grouping field.
For all field types, you can also choose Equal Values. Grouping by Equal Values creates a separate line for each unique entry.
The most common grouping methods appear below:
Field types |
Grouping Options |
Text |
|
Numeric |
|
Date |
|
User |
|
| Duration |
|
To specify sorting and grouping:
In the Sorting and Grouping section of the Report Builder screen, choose Custom Sorting/Grouping.
Choose to sort only by selecting a sort order. If you want to group as well, choose one of the Sort and Group selections.
Choose a field by which to sort.
You may want to specify another level of sorting within your first. For example, say you're sorting a list of contacts by last name, but you have forty-two Joneses on it. You'll probably want to sort by first name in order to keep them straight. It's easy to do.
Click the plus sign icon that appears when you hover your mouse over the field you've already selected in the Sorting/Grouping section and set the secondary order. If you want, keep going. QuickBase lets you set up to six sort orders. Each sort is nested within the sort above it.
If you want to further sort your records within each group, you can add additional rows using the icons that appear when you hover your mouse over the current line. Use the plus sign icon to add a row after the current line.
For example, say that within each week you want to further sort records by who's in the Assigned To field. The resulting report categorizes your data by week, and then sorts the data by staff member.
Your settings should look similar to the following:
The resulting report should look similar to the following:
