Power Apps Dataverse: Complete Guide to Formula Column Sorting vs Calculated Column Sorting

I conducted a detailed investigation into the sorting (Sort) capabilities of Dataverse formula columns.

Note: To avoid confusion between “formula columns” and “calculated columns”, we’ll use “formula columns” throughout this article.

Sorting Limitations in Calculated Columns

Before formula columns were introduced, we used calculated columns to construct columns requiring calculations. However, sorting these calculated columns had the following limitations:

Therefore, I decided to test how far sorting capabilities extend in the newly introduced formula columns.

Numeric Column Without Parent References

First, let’s test sorting a formula column using only its own column (“Num”) – something that was also possible with calculated columns.

This works perfectly in both views and canvas apps.

Numeric Column With Parent References

Next, we’ll modify the formula to include both the parent column (table “Parent” column “Num”) and the grandparent column (table “GrandParent” column “Num”), then test the sorting.

This also works successfully in both views and canvas apps.

DateTime Column with Parent Reference and Functions

We also tested a DateTime type column referencing parent columns. After adding a datetime column to the parent table,

We created a formula column like this (adding functions to make it more complex):

This also works in both views and canvas apps:

Formula Column Containing Other Formula Columns

Finally, we tested creating a formula that includes other formula columns. We created a formula column that includes the datetime column we just created:

Sorting using this column also works in both views and canvas apps:

Therefore, today’s conclusion is that sorting using formula columns is significantly more powerful than sorting using calculated columns.