Tasks plugin: how to sort groups?

[juanbretti]

What I'm trying to do

I would like to sort groups based on the task.happens date.

I have this code:

```tasks
filter by function task.file.folder.includes('Work') || task.file.folder.includes('Daily notes')
filter by function task.status.symbol == ' '
group by folder
group by function '%%' + task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD") + '%%'
group by filename
```

Here is an output. Sorry for the sanitization:

As you can see, the note 2024-03-20 is listed twice.
This is because the third element has a Due date later than the date inferred from the note filename (I have that option on at the plugin options).

What I want, is the group by at line:

group by function '%%' + task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD") + '%%'

... only return the minimum date from all the dates in the filename.

Things I have tried

The code bellow. And a bunch of alternatives. Non worked.

Maybe something like:

sort by function Math.min(task.happens)

... but does not work.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

I am using:

• Tasks 6.2.0
• Obsidian 1.5.11

Cross post with https://forum.obsidian.md/t/tasks-plugin-how-to-sort-groups/78961/1

[claremacrae]

No task text, so we cannot experiment

There's a lot going on there, and you haven't given me any task lines as text that I can copy and paste in to a vault to experiment with.

So I'm limited in what I can usefully say.

However, it is useful to have the query as text - thank you.

Invisible headings

I am confused as to the purpose of this line:

group by function '%%' + task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD") + '%%'

It produces a heading whose text is entirely commented out and invisible, but the text still differs if the happens date differs.

Try changing that text to this and you will likely see what's going on:

group by function task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD")

I suspect that what appears to be the duplicate 2024-03-20 heading is in fact tasks in filename 2024-03-20 - and with different happens dates.

What you want

Unfortunately I do not understand what the following is requesting, in particular the last line:

What I want, is the group by at line:

group by function '%%' + task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD") + '%%'

... only return the minimum date from all the dates in the filename.

Cross-posting

Cross post with https://forum.obsidian.md/t/tasks-plugin-how-to-sort-groups/78961/1

Oh - had there been a reply there already, I would have wasted the time above.

If you're going to cross-post, it would be appreciated if you could put the cross-post like at the top in both locations.

[juanbretti]

Thank you @claremcrae for your response.
Sorry about two things:

• Not mentioning the cross-posting at the top
• Not providing some notes for example

Let's consider these example notes:

2024-03-21.md

- [ ] Task 1
- [ ] Task 2🛫 2024-03-22 
- [ ] Task 3

2024-03-22.md

- [ ] Task 4
- [ ] Task 5
- [ ] Task 6 🛫 2024-03-22 

And the following summary note:
Summary.md

```tasks
filter by function task.status.symbol == ' '
group by folder
group by function '%%' + task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD") + '%%'
group by filename
```

```tasks
filter by function task.status.symbol == ' '
group by folder
group by filename
group by function task.happens.format("YYYY-MM-DD")
```

For the chuck of code at the bottom (with no %%), I get:

So, as you can notice, for the file 2024-03-21 I get two groups 2024-03-21 and 2024-03-22 (which is correct, considering those tasks have different task.happens date.

But, what I want, is to:

• Sort the filenames based on the minimum task.happens inside the file,
• Also, sort task.happens inside the file, by task.happens.

Is this possible?

[claremacrae]

Thanks for the extra info.

Sadly I have no idea what the minimum task.happens inside the file is?

Nor this:

Also, sort task.happens inside the file, by task.happens.

In case it helps, Grouping and Sorting all work on the data in each individual task line. They do not take account other information in other tasks inside a group or a file.

[claremacrae]

You might want to have a look at this section of the documentation:

https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Queries/Grouping#Notes

If you want to sort the tasks within a group, add a sort by line.

[juanbretti]

Thank you @claremacrae for your response.
... And thank you for this great plugin.

After your comment on work on the data in each individual task line, and reading more the documentation; I came out with an adaptation from the code posted at https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Queries/Grouping#Group+by+Dates+in+Tasks

This is my final code:

filter by function task.file.root == 'Work/' || task.file.root == 'Daily notes/'
filter by function task.status.symbol == ' '
group by folder

group by function \
	const date = task.happens.moment; \
	const now = moment(); \
	const max_diff = 1e6; \
	const label = (order, diff, name) => `##### %%${order} ${max_diff + diff}%% ${name}`; \
	if (!date)                      return label(4, 0, 'Undated'); \
	if (!date.isValid())            return label(0, 0, 'Invalid date'); \
	const date_diff = date.diff(now, 'days'); \
	if (date.isBefore(now, 'day'))  return label(1, date_diff, '< ' + Math.abs(date_diff) + ' days ago'); \
	if (date.isSame(now, 'day'))    return label(2, 0, '= Today'); \
	if (date.isAfter(now, 'day'))   return label(3, date_diff, '> In ' + Math.abs(date_diff + 1) + ' days'); \
	return label(4, max_diff, 'Other');

group by filename

# explain

The result looks like:

Thanks!

[claremacrae]

Great - thanks for sharing the code.