Why doesn't "Order By" work in Export?

Chris Z

I'm trying to export the name of the solicitor before the current person.  I have my "Selected Solicitor Types" stacked in an order from which I'd like them name taken, most recent Solicitor Type is on top, but if that doesn't exist, I'd like it to select the next name down the list, working down the list.


I've tried this a bunch of different ways, but it seems like Export just randomly pulls whatever it feels like.  There is no logic to how to picks from the list I've indicated, despite indicating an "Order By."


I've tried this different ways, such as "Date From," but it still picks whomever.  Unfortunately, I have incomplete data with regards to the "Date To" field, so I can't use that.


Any suggestions?


 

JoAnn Strommen

I just did my big export of records and past solicitors this morning.  What I have for the Order By option is Date From with Descending option clicked.  Don't want to jinx myself but this worked for me exactly as you decribed.  First solicitor field listed - most recent, next field, next recent.  Am guessing a key is that there needs to be a Date From on the solicitor type record for it to work. Do you have Date From???


If I was real careful in the order I selected the solicitor types into the right pane, I think I've used the Order by Solicitor Type option also.

Marie Stark

How many solictors are you exporting?  Blackbaud support told me once that "Order By" only works if you export more than one.

 

Chris Z

That would explain it.  I'm only pulling out 1 in my export.  Thank you.

Chris Z

JoAnne, are you pulling more than 1 past solicitor for the Order By to work from?  I do have the Date From, but when I tried it, there was no difference, and the export seemed to pull whomever it wants.

Christine Cooke 2

Chris Z:

I'm trying to export the name of the solicitor before the current person.  I have my "Selected Solicitor Types" stacked in an order from which I'd like them name taken, most recent Solicitor Type is on top, but if that doesn't exist, I'd like it to select the next name down the list, working down the list.


I've tried this a bunch of different ways, but it seems like Export just randomly pulls whatever it feels like.  There is no logic to how to picks from the list I've indicated, despite indicating an "Order By."


I've tried this different ways, such as "Date From," but it still picks whomever.  Unfortunately, I have incomplete data with regards to the "Date To" field, so I can't use that.


Any suggestions?


 

Sounds like you need to export more than one -- because it sounds like you are only exporting the field once.  I would do two or three and I would export them as separate fields to control the order better -- as opposed to choose Solicitor and then choosing 3.  You do not have as much control over the order they come out.  So choose Solicitor and 1 and Solicitor and 1 and Solicitor and 1.

JoAnn Strommen

Yes, Chris, I'm pull out anywhere from 2 to 4 solicitors.  (I pull multiple and then can just hide columns in export but have data incase there's a question I need to check.) Not sure I follow Christine's comments about exporting separately - if you are only doing one they won't 'order'.  I just export 4 Solicitor relationships, ordered as I said in earlier post and they all export to their own field with type and name listed from most recent to older.


Good tip Marie - makes sense sort of.

Joanne Felci 2

I used to have to pull solicitors all the time at my last position and I would order descending by Date Last Changed and that worked for me 95% of the time

Catherine Burns

As others have said for order by to work you need to export multiple solicitors in the same field. Note it is "order by" not "select by" and will simply order whatever is exported so you need to make sure that you export everything you want ordered. I believe that you actually need to export the maximum number of solicitors any person in your query has. You can use the Total Assigned Solicitors field in query to find the maximum number. You can then just delete the extra columns from your export.


For example if your export 4 solicitors and most people have 4 or less it will work for them, but if someone has more than 4, then you may not get their most recent solicitors, it will simply export the first 4 it finds and order them. In theory your most recently added solicitors should be the first records found, but things like constituent merges, or imports from other systems could mess up the order.

JoAnn Strommen

If you have specified what solicitor types you want exported there is no need to export the maximum number.  I have records with many solicitors and as I selected only ones for certain funds/years, I only get the most recent as specified.

Chris Z

Yes, I got it to work.  Thank you all.  It does require more than 1 Assigned Solicitor to be exported.  I didn't need them all on my Export; only needed 2 for Order By to work.  Since I only need to see one former solicitor, I merely have to delete the column in Excel.  But the results were spot on.