Feature with Coded Value Domain Not Sorting Alphabetically in Attribute Table

Question

I am wondering how ArcGIS sorts the attribute tables when sorting by a field.  With the "Show Domain and Subtype Descriptions" on it is not sorting alphabetically in either ascending or descending order, it will have the same codes grouped together but not in an order I can see.  If I turn off "Show Domain and Subtype Descriptions" then it will sort according to the domain codes.  The field in the table is of type "short" and the domain is specified in the subtype design.

We have the following domain with these codes.

When I sort ascending with the descriptions on it goes in this order:

Domain Code

Description

30

Wood - Red Pine

31

Wood - Western Red Cedar

32

Wood - Pine

5

Steel Galvanized

3

Composite

9

Precast Concrete

1

Aluminum

6

Steel

0

Unknown

7

Wood

I found there is a bug but it only references if the domain code is missing.

BUG-000158191

How does ArcGIS sort by descriptions and does it still use the domain code in some way?

Robert_LeClair · Answer

Why your “ascending” order looks odd:  ArcGIS is doing a string (lexicographic) compare on the descriptions, and in many Pro workflows this is influenced by the application’s/internal locale/collation rules (and sometimes a “natural sort” isn’t used). When you have repeated prefixes like Wood - ... plus other single words, the ordering may not match what you expect as “alphabetical” at a glance.  It is not primarily using the domain code once descriptions are shown; codes may only act as a secondary tie-breaker when descriptions are identical (and behavior can vary by data source/version).

Regarding BUG-000158191: that specific defect is about sorting when there are missing coded value domain entries (records contain codes that aren’t present in the domain), which can cause sorting to not work as expected.

Workarounds:

* If you need consistent numeric/code order: keep Show Domain and Subtype Descriptions unchecked and sort by the field (codes).
* If you need a consistent custom domain order in pick lists, use the Sort Coded Value Domain geoprocessing tool

Laura · Answer

For your second pic -

I wonder if it relates to this bug:

https://community.esri.com/discussion/1109200/allow-arcgis-pro-to-sort-coded-value-domains-with-special-characters

maybe the '-' is messing it up with not sorting all of the 'woods' together there. Have you tried a different character or removing it altogether to see if anything changes?

BradPalahnuk · Answer

Thanks Laura.  My sorting issue is in the attribute table not the domain view.  Would the domains not being sorted affect the sorting in the attribute table?