Sort a Table Using One Column

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Summary

This page provides a LibreOffice Basic macro procedure that sorts a table based on the values in one column. It is an example drawn from Chapter 13 ("Calc as a Database") of the 7.0 Calc Guide.

Description

In a Calc macro, data within a range is sorted by calling the sort() method on the range object. When a sort operation is called on a range, an array of properties known as a sort descriptor is passed to the sort method. Contained within a descriptor’s properties are sort fields, which are structures that inform Calc how to sort a range according to the data contained within one of its rows or columns.

As an example, the macro below sorts a class grade sheet in cells $Sheet1.A1:H11 according to average grade in descending order. The linked spreadsheet contains such a grade sheet. Attention: The Field index value of the SortField variable starts relatively from the selected range. For instance, if the selected range spans over C1:H11, the column C has the field index 0.

Code

Sub SortAverageGrade
  Dim oSheet
  Dim oRange
  Dim oSortFields(0) as new com.sun.star.util.SortField
  Dim oSortDesc(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue

  oSheet = ThisComponent.Sheets(0)
  REM Set the range on which to sort
  oRange = oSheet.getCellRangeByName("A1:H11")

  REM Sort by the Average grade field in the range in descending order
  oSortFields(0).Field = 7
  oSortFields(0).SortAscending = FALSE

  REM Set the sort fields to use
  oSortDesc(0).Name = "SortFields"
  oSortDesc(0).Value = oSortFields()
  
  REM Now sort the range!
  oRange.Sort(oSortDesc())
End Sub

This Calc spreadsheet contains the above LibreOffice Basic code.