#community-help

Issues Sorting Multiple Fields with Sort_by in Typesense Query

TLDR Rishabh was having trouble sorting two fields separately with a single query. Jason explained that a secondary sorting will only occur if the first sort results in matching values. They clarified the functionality of sorting in various search engines.

29mo

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Apr 18, 2021 (29 months ago)

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Rishabh

10:18 PM

according to the docs sort_by can have upto 2 field for sorting but it doesn't seems to work. just to confirm both of the data type are int64. and both field work when only single sort is provided. what could be the reason ?

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Jason

10:20 PM

Could you share the exact curl command / code snippet and the output?

Rishabh

10:22 PM

https://example.com/typesense/collections/job/documents/search?per_page=15&query_by=jobTitle
&page=1&q=&sort_by=jobDeadline:asc,projectCreationTime:desc&filter_by=

10:22

Rishabh

10:22 PM

this is the url, both sort data are unix timestamp

Jason

10:24 PM

The query seems fine... May I know what error you get from Typesense when you run it?

Rishabh

10:25 PM

I'm not getting any error, it's just the data is not sorted

10:25

Rishabh

10:25 PM

it sort the data when used only 1 field

10:29

Rishabh

10:29 PM

this is sample 50 records

10:29

Rishabh

10:29 PM

of this query domain/search?per_page=50&page=1&q=&sort_by=jobDeadline:asc,projectCreationTime:desc&query_by=jobTitle&include_fields=jobDeadline,projectCreationTime,id

Jason

10:31 PM

May I know which records seem off to you in ordering?

Rishabh

10:31 PM

in this json you can se 1st and 2nd record

10:32

Rishabh

10:32 PM

here jobDeadline is in right order ie. asc as sent in query

10:32

Rishabh

10:32 PM

but projectCreationTime is not in desc

Jason

10:32 PM

I eye-balled the first few and it seems like they're all ordered by jobDeadline:asc . I don't see any overlapping jobDeadline values for the projectCreationTime:desc to kick-in though

Rishabh

10:34 PM

jobDeadline is sorted but projectCreationTimes doesn't seems working.

Jason

10:34 PM

Essentially, when multiple sort fields are used, the data is sorted by the first field, then if the first field has the same value across records, then the 2nd field is used to sort within those. This is very similar to how sorting multiple columns in a spreadsheet would work for eg

Rishabh

10:36 PM

you mean after 1st sort, if it founds same value in multiple record then 2rd fielf of sort will trigger

10:37

Rishabh

10:37 PM

something like that

Jason

10:37 PM

Correct

Rishabh

10:37 PM

okay, is there any way we can sort multiple field like i described

10:38

Rishabh

10:38 PM

meilisearch also doesn't support this. initially i though typesense do support this feature

10:39

Rishabh

10:39 PM

but typesense is way better than meilisearch

Jason

10:42 PM

> is there any way we can sort multiple field like i described
No, but I'm trying to visualize how this would work. For every record, there needs to be a single value to know which ordered position to put it in, right?

10:43

Jason

10:43 PM

Could you give me an example of say three records with some sample data for these two fields, and how you'd sort them in the way you've described?

Rishabh

10:44 PM

Jason

10:46 PM

> meilisearch also doesn't support this. initially i though typesense do support this feature
I don't think so either. But if you're referring to the comparison chart, what Meilisearch & Algolia do not support that Typesense supports, is support for dynamic sorting, as part of the search parameters. With Meilisearch & Algolia, you have to define the sort order upfront. With Typesense, you can sort on any integer fields on the fly at search time.

Rishabh

10:47 PM

right. I spent 4-5 day in meilisearch before discovering typesense

10:51

Rishabh

10:51 PM

[
{
"document": {
"id": "5bdb10bca52ece560e8a8a17",
"projectCreationTime": 10,
"jobDeadline": 50
}
},
{
"document": {
"id": "5bdb1278a52ece560e8a8a26",
"projectCreationTime": 15,
"jobDeadline": 40
}
},
{
"document": {
"id": "5bdb1235a52ece560e8a8a1c",
"projectCreationTime": 20,
"jobDeadline": 22
}
}]

10:51

Rishabh

10:51 PM

for eg. here projectCreationTime is in asc and jobDeadline is in dsc

Jason

10:53 PM

How about this example. Let's say the unsorted dataset is this:

[{
    "document": {
        "id": "5bdb10bca52ece560e8a8a17",
        "jobDeadline": 10,
        "projectCreationTime": 1
    },
},
{
    "document": {
        "id": "5bdb1278a52ece560e8a8a26",
        "jobDeadline": 6,
        "projectCreationTime": 5
    },
},
{
    "document": {
        "id": "5bdb1235a52ece560e8a8a1c",
        "jobDeadline": 9,
        "projectCreationTime": 3
    },
}]

How would you sort by jobDeadline:asc,projectCreationTime:desc in the way you've described.

10:53

Jason

10:53 PM

If you were to do it by hand...

Rishabh

10:54 PM

maybe i think i'm overthinking. ideally what i'm thinking is not doable.

Jason

10:55 PM

> ideally what i'm thinking is not doable.
I think so too, not just in Typesense - but in general, with sorting as a concept.

But I'm trying to see if I'm missing something obvious or the possibility of a new feature 🙂

Rishabh

10:55 PM

let me think of myself and i'll come up with a good example.

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