SortByColumns "Cannot sort on the expression type"

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Posted on by galos

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In Power Apps, I am using the following statement:

SortByColumns(
 Filter(
 SPListSource,
 'User'.DisplayName = User.Selected.Result && StartsWith(
 Title,
 SearchInput1.Text
 )
 ),
 "Status",Ascending
 )

However, Power Apps is not liking this statement. When I use another column (such as a date or number column) it works fine. However, this column it does not like and returns a "Cannot sort on the expression type" error. The SPListSource is a Microsoft Lists data set and the column "Status" inside of Lists is of type "Choice" that does not allow multiple selections.

I have even tried using "Status".value, but it didn't like that.

I also tried:

SortByColumns(
 Filter(
 SPListSource,
 'User'.DisplayName = User.Selected.Result && StartsWith(
 Title,
 SearchInput1.Text
 )
 ),
 "Status",["Completed","Assigned","On Hold"]
 )

but it didn't like the formatting in the above when I manually chose the order for the column options.

Has anyone ever come across this issue before or offer advice?

thanks in advance!

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Building Power Apps

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WarrenBelz 156,419 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @galos ,

You cannot sort by complex field types - try this

SortByColumns( AddColumns( Filter( SPListSource, 'User'.DisplayName = User.Selected.Result && StartsWith( Title, SearchInput1.Text ) ), "StatVal", Status.Value ), "StatVal" )

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galos 256 on at

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Thanks for your quick reply @WarrenBelz ! It didn't seem to like that, it was expecting "ascending" or "descending" when I closed the quotes for "StatVal" in your suggestion above. Are you trying to suggest I create a variable called "statVal" and set it to the value of the Status column? Would I need to use the "set" function for that to work? I'm trying some forms of that now, but it doesn't seem to like "set" either. I forgot to mention that this formula is in a gallery

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galos 256 on at

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gah! @WarrenBelz I just now saw the AddColumns() function you suggested. That worked! Thank you!!!

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