Sorting

Basics

To sort the results of a query different from the default, you must add at least one sort by line to the query.

You can sort tasks by the following properties:

1. urgency ([[6-advanced/urgency.md)

   urgency]]

2. status (done or todo)
3. priority (priority of the task; “low” is below “none”)
4. start (the date when the task starts)
5. scheduled (the date when the task is scheduled)
6. due (the date when the task is due)
7. done (the date when the task was done)
8. path (the path to the file that contains the task)
9. description (the description of the task)
10. tag (the description of the task)

You can add multiple sort by query options, each on an extra line. The first sort has the highest priority. Each subsequent sort will sort within the existing sorting.

```tasks
sort by status
sort by due
sort by path
```

Reverse sorting

After the name of the property that you want to sort by, you can add the reverse keyword. If given, the sort order will be reverse for that property.

Note that reverse will reverse the entire result set. For example, when you sort by done reverse and your query results contain tasks that do not have a done date, then those tasks without a done date will be listed first.

Tag sorting

Introduced in Tasks 1.6.0.

If you want to sort by tags, by default it will sort by the first tag found in the description. If you want to sort by a tag that comes after that then you can specify the index at the end of the query. All tasks should have the same amount of tags for optimal sorting and the tags in the same order. The index starts from 1 which is also the default.

For example this query will sort by the second tag found in the description.

```tasks
sort by tag 2
```

Examples

```tasks
not done
due today
sort by due
```

```tasks
done
sort by done reverse
```

```tasks
not done
due before next monday
sort by status
sort by description reverse
sort by path
```