How to sort nominal category y-axis by quantitative measure

[yh1214]

Hi, I have a encoded my nominal y-axis with sort but it refuses to sort by the quantitative measure. Sorting defaults to alphabetical. Is anyone able to suggest a solution how I can enable y-axis sort?

{
"$schema": "https://vega.github.io/schema/vega-lite/v5.json",
"width": "container",
"height": "container",
"autosize": {
"type": "fit",
"contains": "padding"
},
"title": {
"text": "Measure by country name",
"fontSize": 15,
"fontWeight": "bold",
"offset": 5,
"anchor": "middle",
"font": "Calibri"
},
"data": {
"name": "dataset"
},
"datasets": {
"dataset2": [
{
"name": "Japan",
"country code": "JP",
"img": "data:image/png;base64...
},
"name": "China",
"country code": "CN",
"img": "data:image/png;base64...
}
//etc.
]
},
"transform": [
{
"lookup": "Short code",
"from": {
"data": {"name": "dataset2"},
"key": "country code",
"fields": ["img"]
}
}
],
"layer": [
{
"mark": {"type": "bar", "cornerRadiusEnd": 8},
"encoding": {
"y": {"field": "Short code", "type": "nominal", "title": "Y title", "sort": {
"op": "max",
"field": "_measure switch 2"
}
},
"x": {
"field": "_measure switch 2",
"type": "quantitative",
"axis": {
"title": null, // Removes title
"domain": false, // Removes axis line
"ticks": false, // Removes ticks
"labels": false // Removes the axis labels
}
}
, "tooltip": [
{"field": "Country name", "type": "nominal", "title": "Country Code"},
{"field": "_measure switch 2", "type": "quantitative", "title": "Measure Value", "format": ","}
]
}
},
{
"mark": {
"type": "image",
"width": 30,
"height": 30,
"align": "left",
"baseline": "middle"
},
"encoding": {
"x": {"value": -40},
"y": {"field": "Short code", "type": "nominal", "axis": null},
"url": {"field": "img", "type": "nominal"}
}
},
{
"mark": {
"type": "text",
"align": "left",
"baseline": "middle"
},
"encoding": {
"x": {"value": -70},
"y": {"field": "Short code", "type": "nominal", "axis": null},
"text": {"field": "Short code", "type": "nominal"}
}
},
{
"mark": {
"type": "text",
"align": "center",
"baseline": "middle",
"dx": 45
},
"encoding": {
"x": {"field": "_measure switch 2", "type": "quantitative"},
"y": {"field": "Short code", "type": "nominal"},
"text": {
"field": "_measure switch 2",
"type": "quantitative",
"format": ","
}
}
}

],
"config": {
"view": {"stroke": null}
}
}

[hydrosquall]

Because the source spec has the data redacted I'm not able to see the problem you encountered. However, I can share that sorting should work if you set the sort in a way that it applies to every layer.

In the sample spec, it looked like the y encoding sort was only being provided on the bar layer. If you set it for every layer, it should work. Let me know if this helps.

Editor link

[yh1214]

Your suggestion worked. Thank you