Information is easier
to understand when it appears in an expected order. Applying a sort
order to one or more data items enables you to arrange rows and columns
in tables and axis labels on charts in some order, such as alphabetically
or highest to lowest numerically. Interactively changing the order
of data can provide you with a different perspective that often facilitates
valuable insight. For example, in a report, sales employees who are
initially arranged alphabetically can be re-sorted by geography or
by sales amount. Seeing the most recent year first in a table can
help you find the most relevant information faster. However, you
can spot trends more quickly in a line plot if you order the years
ascending chronologically. You can also sort data by multiple data
items to show sales employees who generated the most to the least
revenue, within an alphabetical list of the region. SAS Web Report
Studio enables report authors to easily set or change the sort order
of the dates, the text, and the numbers that are presented in tables
and graphs to facilitate understanding.