Sort by Summary Value

[faaslave]

I am using filemaker 11 advanced on a mac.

I have a report with my members by state. It takes all my members, breaks them down by what state they are in and gives a total for each state. I have a summary field using the count function in the report. This works fine.

I want to make it so it is sorted by the state with the most members descending order.

 

Based on the help section in FM that I posted below, this should be easy. The problem is the summary field is greyed out and can't be added to the sort. What am I missing? Thanks for any help.

 

 

I found this in the help section, but it doesn't help.

 

 

Sorting records by subsummary values

To properly display a report with grouped data and subtotals (also known as a subsummary report), data must be sorted to display the appropriate break fields. If you have a subsummary report, data in the report is grouped and displayed by the category that produced the totals. However, you can specify a subsummary value to sort on to reorder data more logically in a report.

Suppose you create a report that subtotals sales by region. You can sort data in the report by region (Example 1) or you can specify that records in the report are sorted by subsummary values, which lists data by total sales (Example 2).

In both examples, Total Sales is a summary field that shows regional totals when sorted by Region.

Example 1: Report with grouped data and subtotals, not sorted by subsummary values

Example 2: Report with grouped data and subtotals, sorted by subsummary values

To sort records by subsummary values:

1.

Create a report with grouped data and subtotals. Include the field you use to categorize the records (in this example, Region) and the summary field (here, Total Sales) in the report.

For more information on creating a report with grouped data and subtotals, see Creating a layout.

2.

In Browse mode, click Sort in the status toolbar, or choose Records menu > Sort Records.

3.

Move the grouping field (Region) to the Sort Order list, or select it if it is already there.

4.

Select Reorder based on summary field or click Specify.

5.

In the Specify Field dialog box, select a summary field (Total Sales) and click OK.

6.

Select a sort order (in this example, Descending order).

7.

Click Sort.

8.

Click Table View  or List View  in the layout bar, go to Preview mode, or print to see the sorted results.

Tip  If data is already sorted by the grouping field, you don’t have to re-sort when you add or remove a summary field in the sort order. Specify the summary field in the Specify Field dialog box as described above, then click OK.

 

[GisMo]

You should be able to accomplish that. Create a sub-summary layout part and choose State as the grouping. Put the Summary Count field and the State field into the Sub-Summary Layout Part.Goto sort in your layout and add both State and Count to the sort. Put State at the top of the list. Press sort button

 

Does that work?