Item8722: TablePlugin sorts dates alphabetically if some cells are empty

After a very recent update to TablePlugin fixing a sorting issue with decimal number we now have introduced a new problem.

Before the change a column with dates where some of the cells were empty would sort so first all the empty cells were listed followed by the dates sorted as dates

The rows with the empty cells would sort more or less randomly but they would always come before the cells with dates.

After the change the column with empty cells is regarded as text strings and the sort happens alphabetically.

Here is an actual example. The project manager in question has always had the dates sorted by the forecast column. When a milestone is reached the date is moved to the actual column leaving more and more cells in the forecast empty.

Milestone	Plan	Forecast	Actual
Doc Input	12 Sep 2007		12 Sep 2007
Doc Plan	26 Sep 2007		26 Sep 2007
Management Decision	10 Oct 2007		10 Oct 2007
Q Plan	10 Oct 2007		30 Nov 2007
Management Review	12 Oct 2007		12 Oct 2007
Some Start Milestone	13 Jun 2007		14 Sep 2007
SW: Test 1	13 Dec 2007	12 Dec 2007
Senior Management Babble	17 Oct 2007	13 Dec 2007
SW: Test 2	11 Jan 2008	11 Jan 2008
Internal test	11 Jan 2008	11 Jan 2008
Upgrade stuff	11 Jan 2008	11 Jan 2008
Test more stuff	01 Feb 2008	01 Feb 2008
Stuff tested and integrated	21 Mar 2008	21 Mar 2008
Upgrade next version	21 Mar 2008	21 Mar 2008
Test next version	11 Apr 2008	11 Apr 2008
Next version tested	11 Apr 2008	11 Apr 2008
Write more doccu	05 May 2008	05 May 2008
SW: Final version	16 May 2008	16 May 2008
SW: Final final version	30 May 2008	30 May 2008
Build release	09 Jun 2008	09 Jun 2008
Upload release	20 Jun 2008	20 Jun 2008

Normally we would sort by planned but in this case the dates have crossed over a lot so the PM prefers the sort by forecast.

That worked OK until 2 days ago when I upgraded our TablePlugin.

It would be better if the

• Empty cells in a row of random strings is sorted like an empty string (which is the case today)
• Empty cells in a row of numbers are sorted so empty means "infinite negative" ie. before all numbers, which would make it consistant with numbers and dates
• Empty cells in a row of dates are sorted so empty means epoch 0 (before any modern date)
• Empty cell rows are sorted within themselves as they appear in the raw input table (nice to have). This would make a better chance that those rows are not in total random order.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2010

The previous version of table plugin would stop sorting as soon as the column type was ambivalent: mixed dates and strings or empty cells. The update on trunk makes it possible to have cells of different type mixed.

Please give an example that illustrates the problem you are seeing.

-- ArthurClemens - 17 Mar 2010

I had written "here is an example - but forgotten to paste in the example I had in the paste buffer. I am getting old. I have added it up in the original description.

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2010

It seems this site has a plugin version that does not do this either.

I have a merlin.lavrsen.dk installation I call timewarp which I use to jump between versions. It is currently at the 1.0.9 release version. And on this it sorts like it did here at the office until I upgraded.

http://merlin.lavrsen.dk/timewarp/bin/view/Myweb/ScheduleTableTest

-- KennethLavrsen - 17 Mar 2010

OK. trunk version works fine. Only the release version needs a tweak.

-- ArthurClemens - 17 Mar 2010

This will not get fixed in 1.0 scope.

I am changing target to 1.1 (minor) and setting it to WaitingForRelease

-- KennethLavrsen - 22 Jul 2010

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