As the previous section shows, sorting data displays report data in a more meaningful order. Without sorting, a report can be much less usable, as the first report in Figure 9‑1 shows.

You can sort data in ascending or descending order, and you can sort by as many fields as you like. For example, you can sort a list of customers by credit rank, then by customer name.

Figure 9‑3 shows the first six data rows in three lists. The first list is unsorted, the second sorts data by credit rank, and the third sorts data first by credit rank, then by customer name.

A field that you use to sort data is called a sort key. For example, the third list in Figure 9‑3 has two sort keys—the credit field and the customer name field.