# Sorting Categories by Name
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 12, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430 "2019-03-12T22:47:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/1 "2019-03-12T22:47:36Z")
How would you sort {host}/categories by name?
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/2 "2019-03-12T23:15:42Z")
Are you trying to order categories on the Category page? If so, that can be done by enabling the `fixed category positions` Site Setting. When that setting is enabled, an option to Reorder Categories is added to the staff menu on the top-right of the category page.
If this isn’t what you’re looking for, let us know.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 1:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/3 "2019-03-13T01:19:30Z")
If you have more than 20 or so, a bit of ruby at the console can sort them all.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/4 "2019-03-13T05:09:46Z")
Do you know off hand the field that would have to be changed?
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 5:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/5 "2019-03-13T05:13:54Z")
> [@simon](#):
>
> If this isn’t what you’re looking for, let us know.
That looks cool and it looks like it would work.
It doesn’t work well with Categories with SubCategories.
Which I click on a main category to move up it doesn’t move.
Sub categories within a main category do move.
Is that a bug?
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/6 "2019-03-13T07:52:50Z")
It works here. Could be customisations interfering with the page.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/7 "2019-03-13T22:42:24Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> It works here
It works here as long as the item above is a parent category. It fails when the item above is a subcategory.
Is there an official way I can add a test that shows the problem (or not) … do the UI tests use Puppeteer or something similar?
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/8 "2019-03-13T23:03:07Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> It works here
The issue I’m seeing is pretty much the same as [Reorder Categories behaving strangely](https://meta.discourse.org/t/reorder-categories-behaving-strangely/104190)
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/9 "2019-03-18T21:40:06Z")
I ended up doing this via SQL.
> [@Ordering categories using SQL](https://meta.discourse.org/t/ordering-categories-using-sql/111960):
>
> The following code changes the order of categories to be alphanumeric using SQL. Preconditions. Postgres backend UPDATE categories SET POSITION = subquery.position FROM ( SELECT POSITION , CASE WHEN category\_id = 0 THEN parent\_category\_id ELSE category\_id END category\_id , CASE WHEN category\_id = 0 THEN parent\_category\_name ELSE category\_name END category\_name FROM ( SELECT ROW\_NUMBER - 1 AS POSITION , parent\_category\_id , parent\_category\_name , category\_id , category\_name F…
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sorting-categories-by-name/111430/10 "2019-04-17T21:40:23Z")
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