Hi, I am trying to sort a text array and tried using the following recipe.

Hey, if you haven't figured it out, try something like this :

load(
local!textArray: {
"b",
"a"
},
local!tempCDT: apply(
rule!toCDT,
local!textArray
),
local!pagingInfo: a!pagingInfo(
startIndex: 1,
batchSize: -1,
sort: a!sortInfo(
field: "field",
ascending: true
)
),
todatasubset(
local!tempCDT,
local!pagingInfo
).data.field
)

rule!toCDT has one rule input called "text" (Type: Text), and is defined as:
{field: ri!text}

replace local:textArray from the first rule with the text array that you want to sort.

Basically what the code does is converts your text array to a temporary "CDT" which just has one field (called field), that way when you make your pagingInfo you can give it a field to sort on. In the example above, the result is {"a","b"}

I did try your method and I am still getting the same error message when I test the rule. We are using v7.3
Expression evaluation error at function 'todatasubset' [line 18]: Error evaluating function 'todatasubset' : java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The given data type is not a record type: Dictionary (id=94)

When I remove the pagingInfo information, it works but the data is not sorted.

Could you share the piece of code you're trying to run? Specifically how you're calling todatasubset?

I am using the same code that you had posted.
load(
local!textArray: {
"b",
"a"
},
local!tempCDT: apply(
rule!toCDT,
local!textArray
),
local!pagingInfo: a!pagingInfo(
startIndex: 1,
batchSize: -1,
sort: a!sortInfo(
field: "field",
ascending: true
)
),
todatasubset(
local!tempCDT,
local!pagingInfo
).data.field
)

Strange, it works fine when I run it. However, I am using 7.5, so that might be the difference. Looking at the documentation for todatasubset at forum.appian.com/.../Scripting_Functions
it says that the first parameter (arrayToPage) can use dictionary syntax, which is what is happening in my example above. However it does say towards the end "Sorting is only supported for complex data types and is not supported for a dictionary array." which is probably what is causing the error you are seeing. If that's the case, I'm not sure how it works for me, but there is another workaround you could try.

Instead, create a CDT for this purpose specifically, which only has one field (a text field to store the text value you want to sort). and instead of returning {field: ri!text} in rule!toCDT to create a dictionary, return type!yourCDT(field: ri!text) to create an instance of this new CDT. Alternatively, if you dont want to create a new CDT, you could use an existing CDT that has a text field. For example, if you had an Employee CDT with a field for "name", you could define rule!toCDT as :
type!Employee(name: ri!text), and change the rest of the code to the following:
load(
local!textArray: {
"b",
"a"
},
local!tempCDT: apply(
rule!toCDT,
local!textArray
),
local!pagingInfo: a!pagingInfo(
startIndex: 1,
batchSize: -1,
sort: a!sortInfo(
field: "name",
ascending: true
)
),
todatasubset(
local!tempCDT,
local!pagingInfo
).data.name
)

Hope this helps!

Looking a bit more into the documentation, looks like sorting using the Dictionary syntax is a feature that was added for 7.4. So you'll have to use the CDT method from my most recent post if you're on 7.3.

I had to use the CDT method to get the array sorted. Thank you for your help.

Also, Appian does include a sorttextarray() function for normal text arrays.

The sorttextarray() function is part of the Sort Utilities Plugin: forum.appian.com/.../summary