Hi I have a scenario wherein I am displaying data in my drop down by

I know there is a lot of internal non-public functions which is OK for me, but sort() ? BTW wherecontains is documented, at least in 16.1. forum.appian.com/.../Array_Functions.html

@stefanh Hmm, the reason why I compared it with wherecontains() is, some time ago, even wherecontains() is a hidden function and it's exposed after some time. sort() is also hidden as of now (similar to wherecontains() behavior some time ago) and might be exposed down the line as Appian did in case of wherecontains().

Thank you sikhivahans, stefanh791 for your replies.

stefanh791 in the earlier comment you mentioned you tried something with ad hoc data structure, can you please elaborate what you actually did.

Sure. In this case I wanted to sort users without using the plugin. But this can be used for anything where you cannot sort using the actual value but have to sort by something else. My expression is

TS_ToSortDict(itemToSort: any, itemSortBy: any)
={item: ri!itemToSort, sort: ri!itemSortBy}

Then it can be used like this:

=todatasubset(
arrayToPage: apply(rule!DMP_ToSortDict(
item:_,
sort:_
), merge(ri!users, apply(rule!APN_displayUser(user:_), ri!users))),
pagingConfiguration: a!pagingInfo(1, -1, a!sortInfo("sort", true))
)

stefanh791 thank you for replying!!

Can you please explain what are you trying to do in a!sortInfo(). As far as I understood your rule, you are sending in the sub rule's attribute item an array which is a combination of user names and user display names and then for itemSortBy attribute, you are sending a!pagingInfo where I am not able to understand the significance of "sort" in a!sortInfo.

Can you please explain!!

sort in sortInfo is just the name of the field in the data structure I want to use for sorting. The apply() expression creates a structure something like this.

{{item: "a", sort: 2}, {item: "b", sort: 1}}

Then I tell sortinfo to sort this by the "sort" field.

stefanh791 there is still some confusion from my end.

Please correct me if I am wrong:

With
                              merge(ri!users, apply(rule!APN_displayUser(user:_), ri!users))
You are creating an array which is a combination of usernames and user display
names.

This array is what goes to the sub rule's item attribute. Then from where is sort attribute getting value from on which a!sortInfo() is working?

This array goes to the items AND to the sort attribute. Merge() interleaves both arrays and creates pairs of values which apply uses to call the expression.

stefanh791 thank you for explaining!!

I get your point of how this array is passed to the sub rule.
So the core of this is a!sortInfo() is the only way out even if we use the adhoc data structure thing that you have explained above!!

It depends a bit on what you want to do and whether you want to use the "hidden" sort() function. Maybe someone else has a better idea, but this is what I did after some investigation.