After upgrading to Confluence 6.3.4, I can no longer sort by date in a table column. Is it me?
Asked by Tom Marks:

In a simple table with 5 columns and 12 rows, one of the columns uses the standard date format/object (made using "//"). In previous version, the table would accurately sort on that date column. Version 6.3.4 seems to sort only by the numeric value of the day, and doesn't seem to recognize the rest of the date info.

Is this a known issue, or am I doing something incorrectly? I've experimented by creating a new table after the upgrade, and it yields the same behavior.

Frustrating - feels like I lost a feature with 6.3.4....


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: Hi Tom,

That was good thinking to create a new table and test.

I tried sorting a column in a table by dates I inserted with the date picker and it worked on my Confluence 6.3.4 test instance. I am using Chrome version 65.0.3325.181.

Also, I found a bug but it was only for European date format, does that fit your use case? [Dates aren't sorted correctly in European time format (dd.mm.yyyy)](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-38083)

Does it work if you use a different browser from the one you were trying with?

Thanks,

Ann

comments: author: Tom Marks
body: Thanks for the quick response, Ann! After looking at the detail for the European time format, I'm not sure this is the same issue - although I guess the date format we are using is "European". For us, it just looks like the value for "day" is the only sort criteria used. See excerpt picture below.

I tried this on IE 11.0.9600 and on Chrome 66.0.3359.117 with identical results.

If there is a way to change the date format to something other than the current setting, and if you think that might help fix the issue, I'm willing to try it. Is that an admin function, or do I get a choice as a page editor? Didn't see any settings that would allow me to configure that...

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20549i1A2E2C10394F4607/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")


author: AnnWorley
body: I don't think we should pursue changing the date format because mine is like yours and it works in ascending and descending order:![Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 2.06.47 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20551i0546B347496F63C8/image-dimensions/491x438?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 2.06.47 PM.png")

![Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 2.07.17 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20550i578F700FF57EAAFC/image-dimensions/123x183?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 2.07.17 PM.png")

Since it fails in two browsers I don't think it's a browser issue. It works on my test instance so there must be something different between our setups.

To eliminate user installed add-ons as causing this, please try [Disabling or enabling all add-ons (using Safe Mode)](https://confluence.atlassian.com/upm/disabling-and-enabling-add-ons-273875716.html). That will temporarily disable all user installed plugins and their macros so it is a good idea to do it after hours or during a maintenance window.

Thanks,

Ann


author: Tom Marks
body: OK, I can suggest that to our admin - but let me thicken the plot a little in case it matters...

The table in question is actually made up of a series of multi-excerpt includes from various subordinate pages (see edit-mode picture below). Could that level of indirection be a trigger? Also, I've gone back and checked/expanded my test table and it does seem to work correctly today ( I swear it was not before, but anything's possible I guess :)). So, it appears that straight dates will sort as expected, but these excerpt entries seem to have an issue.

Sorry for not identifying this detail before...

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20554iC7B6AA80E5DF470D/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")


author: AnnWorley
body: No problem at all. I think we found our issue. The Multiexcerpt include macro is from the Marketplace: [Multi Excerpt](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/biz.artemissoftware.confluence.multiexcerpt.MultiExcerptMacro/server/overview). Please ask your administrator to make sure the add-on from that link is updated to the latest version. If it still causes sorting issues we can move your question to the Marketplace collection on this forum and someone from Artemis (makers of the macro) can help.