21 December 2022 Sorting data in Qlik Sense Share this message Every Friday at Bitmetric we’re posting a new Qlik certification practice question to our LinkedIn company page. Last Friday we asked the following Qlik Data Architect certification practice question about sorting data in Qlik Sense. Many responses again and as expected nobody was fooled by the answers. You all got it right! The correct answer is A Sorting data When receiving data it might happen that data is unsorted. Mostly when receiving custom/hand-made files. While sorting is possible in the front end it is good practice to have the data sorted in the stored data as well. Furthermore it might happen that certain aggregations or calculations are made in the script based on a certain sorting. Here you can think of accumulating sales over time. In order to properly sort this data the order by clause can be added to the load script. Order by The order by clause is quite simple: Order by fieldname [ sortorder ] { , fieldname [ sortorder ] } You will tell Qlik to order the table based on the field given. It is possible to sort on more fields, these are added after a comma. It is also possible to influence the sort order, by specifying whether it is ascending (asc) or descending (desc). A order by on more fields based on this question could look like the following: Order by Date, Product, Price Desc This means we order the table by Date, then Product and finally Price Descending. So if we have products on the same date these are sorted from highest to lowest selling price. Things to keep in mind Order by will only work on resident tables. So first do a load from the data source and use this as a temporary table to do the sorting on. It will also not work on loads from files or as a preceding load. (for more info on preceding loads check out this blog post!) The default sort order is ascending, so numerical low to high and from alphabet a to z. It is not necessary to specify this in the order by clause, however for clarity sake it might be wise. Then use asc to specify ascending order or desc for the other way around. When making changes in the load of the resident table be aware that if you use an alias (as) you need to specify the original name of the field. The order in which you specify the order by clause determines the order in which the ordering is done. So in the example above the table will first be sorted on Date then Product and then Price descending. Keep this in mind if you get unexpected results. That’s it for this week! More from the Bitmetric team Qlik Cloud Backup Protect your investment in Qlik with daily incremental backups stored in an encrypted environment with redundant storage. Available for as little as 2 Euro per day. Learn more. Masters Summit for Qlik The Masters Summit for Qlik provides the next step in your path to becoming a Qlik specialist. As an extra perk, Bitmetric has secured an over $450 discount just for you! Use code BITMETRIC at checkout. Read more here. Friday Qlik Test Prep Qlik How can we help? Barry has over 20 years experience as a Data & Analytics architect, developer, trainer and author. He will gladly help you with any questions you may have. Call us Mail us 13 June 2025 Qlik Extension: Scroll to Object Ever since Qlik introduced extended sheets in June 2018, we at Bitmetric have been fans. The ability to extend a sheet vertically and add visualizations below the fold is a powerful way to present more insights without cluttering the main view. Yet, even after seven years, it still feels like a hidden feature. Many users […] Extension Qlik 2 June 2025 Simplifying Data Integration with TimeXtender At Bitmetric, we believe in making technology work for people, not the other way around. TimeXtender’s approach to data integration fits this philosophy by removing obstacles and giving users practical tools to manage their data. Solution TimeXtender 12 May 2025 Dagelijkse Qlik Ondersteuning: altijd hulp bij data analyse Bij Bitmetric snappen we hoe belangrijk het is dat je Qlik omgeving gewoon goed werkt. Of je nu dagelijks data analyseert of snel wat inzichten nodig hebt, je wilt dat alles soepel verloopt. Daarom staan onze experts elke dag voor je klaar. Van kleine vragen tot ingewikkelde uitdagingen, we helpen je graag verder, zodat jij je kunt focussen op wat echt telt! Qlik
13 June 2025 Qlik Extension: Scroll to Object Ever since Qlik introduced extended sheets in June 2018, we at Bitmetric have been fans. The ability to extend a sheet vertically and add visualizations below the fold is a powerful way to present more insights without cluttering the main view. Yet, even after seven years, it still feels like a hidden feature. Many users […] Extension Qlik
2 June 2025 Simplifying Data Integration with TimeXtender At Bitmetric, we believe in making technology work for people, not the other way around. TimeXtender’s approach to data integration fits this philosophy by removing obstacles and giving users practical tools to manage their data. Solution TimeXtender
12 May 2025 Dagelijkse Qlik Ondersteuning: altijd hulp bij data analyse Bij Bitmetric snappen we hoe belangrijk het is dat je Qlik omgeving gewoon goed werkt. Of je nu dagelijks data analyseert of snel wat inzichten nodig hebt, je wilt dat alles soepel verloopt. Daarom staan onze experts elke dag voor je klaar. Van kleine vragen tot ingewikkelde uitdagingen, we helpen je graag verder, zodat jij je kunt focussen op wat echt telt! Qlik