Unable to sort multiple columns in opposite directions

[jasonrush]

I am trying to create a custom ticketing dashboard, and am running into an issue. I would like to sort first by priority of tickets (high = 1/med = 2/low = 3) and then by ticket ID (larger means newer) so I see high priority tickets first, then newest to oldest. Problem is that means Priority should be sorting Descending (1,2,3) but ID should be sorting Ascending (3,2,1). I've verified I can specify multiple sort columns (int or string arrays depending on specifying column indexes or names) via arrays, but I can only specify one way to sort the columns. Is there any solution/recommendation on how I might be able to do this as-is, or is this a limitation to the current implementation?

https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/e62d662b1df9bef11c95cd3e8656bae0ef5b051e/Public/New-HTMLTable.ps1#L31-L33

Here's an example of what I'm after (sorting by PRI descending, then ID ascending):

PRI	ID	Summary
1	7	Placeholder Text
1	5	Placeholder Text
2	4	Placeholder Text
2	2	Placeholder Text
2	1	Placeholder Text
3	6	Placeholder Text
3	3	Placeholder Text

[jasonrush]

Looking at this a bit more, I think the solution would be to convert $DefaultSortOrder from [string] to [string[]], and within the foreach() loops create some kind of localized $sort variable. And at this point I've put in enough effort I should just create a PR...

https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/e62d662b1df9bef11c95cd3e8656bae0ef5b051e/Public/New-HTMLTable.ps1#L33

https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/e62d662b1df9bef11c95cd3e8656bae0ef5b051e/Public/New-HTMLTable.ps1#L706-L726

Additional note: From reviewing this chunk of code, I'd imagine lines 714 and 722 (if ($Column -ne - 1) {) should be -1 and not - 1 with a space?

[PrzemyslawKlys]

I am not sure if we should do it this way:

• https://datatables.net/examples/basic_init/multi_col_sort.html
• https://datatables.net/forums/discussion/48105/sort-multiple-columns-by-default

I'm trying to understand the difference between the current solution and the solution from the first link.

Yes, this is a bug (-1). Most likely introduce while formatting 🙀

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Two bugs:

• https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/96e672bacf109d87868867f489b9e44fcae8d744/Public/New-HTMLTable.ps1#L722-L722
• https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/96e672bacf109d87868867f489b9e44fcae8d744/Public/New-HTMLTable.ps1#L714-L714

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Ok, going thru the implementation. By default when you use DefaultSortColumn it will always sort it according to DefaultSortOrder. If there are 5 columns to sort on, It will have to be either all ascending or all descending.

There are 2 choices:

1. Implement two arrays as you say but then deal with problems with having disprepency 2 to 1, 5 to 1, 7 to 3 between columns. It's possible possible people will use different
2. Implement it in the New-TableColumnOption and allow to define it per column

Maybe even have both done.

https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/blob/96e672bacf109d87868867f489b9e44fcae8d744/Public/New-TableColumnOption.ps1#L1-L1

[jasonrush]

I've thrown together a PR (https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML/pull/242) that I think should fix it in a non-breaking way (backwards compatible, but makes reasonable enough sense). Haven't actually run/tested it yet.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

I'll take a look tomorrow - my brain is shutting down. Thank you for your effort.

[jasonrush]

No, thank you for the awesome module! I've only dabbled with it a couple times, but it's fantastic to work with both on the coding side and the outputs.