issues: 1161937073

^{Originally posted by **zaneselvans** March 7, 2022} It's easy to tell datasette to sort tables using a single column, as [described in the docs](https://docs.datasette.io/en/stable/metadata.html#setting-a-default-sort-order): ```yaml databases: ferc1: tables: f1_edcfu_epda: sort: created_time ``` But is there some way to tell it to sort using a composite key, like you would in an `ORDER BY` clause instead? For example, the way it's being done **[in this query](https://data.catalyst.coop/ferc1?sql=select%0D%0A++rowid%2C%0D%0A++respondent_id%2C%0D%0A++report_year%2C%0D%0A++spplmnt_num%2C%0D%0A++row_number%2C%0D%0A++row_seq%2C%0D%0A++row_prvlg%2C%0D%0A++acct_num%2C%0D%0A++depr_plnt_base%2C%0D%0A++est_avg_srvce_lf%2C%0D%0A++net_salvage%2C%0D%0A++apply_depr_rate%2C%0D%0A++mrtlty_crv_typ%2C%0D%0A++avg_remaining_lf%2C%0D%0A++report_prd%0D%0Afrom%0D%0A++f1_edcfu_epda%0D%0Awhere%0D%0A++respondent_id+%3D+210%0D%0A++AND+report_year+%3D+2020%0D%0Aorder+by%0D%0A++report_year%2C+report_prd%2C+respondent_id%2C+spplmnt_num%2C+row_number%0D%0Alimit%0D%0A++1000)** on our Datasette? ```sql SELECT respondent_id, report_year, spplmnt_num, row_number, row_seq, row_prvlg, acct_num, depr_plnt_base, est_avg_srvce_lf, net_salvage, apply_depr_rate, mrtlty_crv_typ, avg_remaining_lf, report_prd FROM f1_edcfu_epda WHERE respondent_id = 210 AND report_year = 2020 ORDER BY report_year, report_prd, respondent_id, spplmnt_num, row_number LIMIT 1000 ``` The problem here is that by default it's using `rowid` (the SQLite assigned autoincrementing integer key) to order the records, but the table **should** have a natural composite primary key, but the original database that this data is being migrated from doesn't enforce unique primary keys, so there are dupes, and we don't want to drop those rows, and the records are somehow getting jumbled in the database (the `rowid` ordering isn't lined up with the expected ordering based on the composite primary key, though it's close) and this jumbling is confusing to users that expect to see the data ordered based on the natural primary key. I've tried setting the `sort` metadata parameter to a list of column names, a tuple of column names, a quoted string of comma-separated column names, a quoted string of a tuple of column names... ```yaml databases: ferc1: tables: f1_edcfu_epda: sort: "(report_year, report_prd, respondent_id, spplmnt_num, row_number)" ``` and they all give me server errors like: ``` Cannot sort table by (report_year, report_prd, respondent_id, spplmnt_num, row_number) ```