simonw / simonw/datasette

?sort=colname~numeric to sort by by column cast to real

Open
#894 21 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement medium
Dominant language
Python
Stars
11.5k
Forks
904
Avg merge
4d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
18

Description

If a text column actually contains numbers, being able to "sort by column, treated as numeric" would be really useful.

Probably depends on column actions enabled by #690

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with Datasette’s existing sort query handling and the column-actions work referenced in #690. Trace how a sort request identifies the column and determine how numeric treatment should apply to text values; the work is done when the requested syntax sorts numeric text numerically and is covered by a regression test.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python, sqlite
Domain
backend, database
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.