# Sort on multiple fields Not working

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 21, 2023, 6:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131 "2023-03-21T06:04:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_baba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/ecb155/32.png) [@\_baba](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/_baba)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 6:04am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131/1 "2023-03-21T06:04:54Z")

</div>

Hi, I'm trying to sort on multiple fields like -

1. sort on field1 first
2. if there is a tie on field1, sort based on field 2.

POST sort\_logic/\_doc  
{  
"field1" : 4,  
"field2" : "4"

```
}

```

POST sort\_logic/\_doc  
{  
"field1" : 4,  
"field2" : "8"  
}  
POST sort\_logic/\_doc  
{  
"field1" : 4,  
"field2" : "10"  
}

GET sort\_logic/\_search?size=5  
{  
"sort" : [  
{"field1": {"order": "desc"},  
"field2.keyword": {"order": "desc"}  
}  
]  
}

**Sorting output - [4,"8"],[4, "4"], [4, "10"]**  
**Expected sorting - [4, "10"], [4, "8"], [4, "4"]**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 6:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131/2 "2023-03-21T06:23:49Z")

</div>

The keyword subfield is a string so values are sorted as strings, not integers. When you sort strings you compare a character at a time, so "8" \> "4" \> "10", so the sorting output you are seeing is the expected one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_baba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/ecb155/32.png) [@\_baba](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/_baba)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 6:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131/3 "2023-03-21T06:27:58Z")

</div>

Thanks for you response. This makes sense now.  
Is there a way to sort multiple fields(combination of keyword and integers) in such a way that keyword is cast to integer (or any other way that you suggest) while sorting and achieve the desired output.

**[4, "10"], [4, "8"], [4, "4"]**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2023, 6:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/sort-on-multiple-fields-not-working/328131/4 "2023-04-18T06:28:52Z")

</div>

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