Gauge & Bar Gauge & Stat Panel should have option to sort each series

[Wing924]

What would you like to be added:
Bar Guage looks very nice! It would be nice if we can sort the bar by titles and values.

Why is this needed:
The problem is that after auto refresh, the order of bars are changed.

[torkelo]

We do not want to add sorting to each visualization as this is something better done in your query. We are looking at adding a data transform layer between query results and visualization and sorting could possibly go there

[Wing924]

@torkelo

is something better done in your query

Prometheus can only sort by value and it can't sort by label name.

[mblaschke]

@torkelo
please add such an option, currently it's jumping around with each reload.

[torkelo]

Sort should be done in the query

[hafkensite]

We do not want to add sorting to each visualization as this is something better done in your query. We are looking at adding a data transform layer between query results and visualization and sorting could possibly go there

I can see that more visualizations would benefit from this, when can we expect this transform layer to be implemented?

[torkelo]

in next 3-5 months

[talbz]

ETA? :)

[basroovers]

Only seems to happen for Prometheus datasource when you group in your query:

100 - min by (mountpoint,customer,environment,filesystem,job,role,volumelabel)(wmi_cluster_disk_partition_freespace) / min by (mountpoint,customer,environment,filesystem,job,role,volumelabel)(wmi_cluster_disk_partition_totalsize) * 100

A simpler query doesn't produce the re-ordering every page reload:

wmi_cluster_disk_partition_freespace

[eraac]

Some datasources don't support order (ex. stackdriver).

That will be nice to order bar depending of the value. My use case is to order by the oldest message in pubsub subscription

[mroe1234]

Another example of how sorting in the visualization is helpful. Here is my flux:
from(bucket: "ntopng/autogen")
|> range($range)
|> filter(fn: (r) => r._measurement == "host:traffic" and (r._field == "bytes_rcvd") and (r.ifid == "$ifid"))
|> difference(nonNegative: true)
|> sum()
|> group()
|> top(n:10)
|> duplicate(column: "host", as: "_field")
|> group(columns: ["_field"])
|> drop(columns: ["_measurement","ifid", "host"])

The visualization requires I group by a field in order to properly show the data, however that creates 10 tables, and the visualization seems to display them in alphabetic by, in my case, "_field" rather in descending value order.

[dunxiii]

Sort should be done in the query

Yes but even when prometheus returns a correct sorted list bar gauge does not use that sorting. So something break the sort along the way.

[bradbeam]

@dunxiii try switching the instant toggle, that let the sorting show up correctly for me

[torkelo]

This should be implemented as a sort transform using new transform feature

[kolminux]

Very useful feature, seems like a "sort transform" despite the datasource in use is the best approach.
Is there an estimated version to release it?

[Vamic]

I'm using multiple data sources and applying the merge transform to combine them.
A sort transform would be fantastic so the results can be displayed in order.

[carpeliam]

This should be implemented as a sort transform using new transform feature

@torkelo Right now Transform is unable to sort by value; are you saying that Transform should support sorting by value in the future? We were hoping that using sort or sort_desc in our PromQL would result in a sorted bar gauge in Grafana, which we can see if we toggle Instant as others have mentioned, but this use case doesn't work for us currently.

[torkelo]

If sort in query Grafana will use that sort order, could be that if you are using a transform like join or merge that your sort order will be lost however.

But if you are not using any Transform the order is determined by the query

[carpeliam]

@torkelo is that assuming that "Instant" is toggled to be on, or should that be true regardless of whether or not the query is regarded as "instant"? Here's a screenshot of a bar graph in Grafana 7.1.5 with no transformations applied, using the sort_desc function; only if I make this an instant query will the results be sorted.

[torkelo]

The prometheus sort functions only work on instant vectors, there is no series sorting

[dpnbp]

I'd like for the bar gauge specifically to have a sort by property.

The "Sort By" transformation doesn't work on data that is in multiple data frames and the bar gauge panel doesn't display data that is in a single data frame so right now I can't get both of these features to work together to get a sorted bar gauge visualization.

(The table panel in conjunction with the reduce/series-to-rows transformation is a work around but it doesn't have the same dynamic display capabilities that the bar gauge panel has).

[maththedude]

@torkelo

We do not want to add sorting to each visualization as this is something better done in your query.

I am currently displaying the output of an expression. It is table data, not timeseries. If there is a way to get that output sorted by value, I am not aware of it.

[kong62]

can not disable full legend name

[torkelo]

you can use the Sort by transform to sort data

[spxie85]

There isn't an option to Sort by Value using Transform tab, and Grafana does not appear to obey the query's ORDER BY rules.

[gabzim]

if something like this would help (I know it's not as nice/smooth as a bar gauge) I got this to work by using a table, then using an override to make the field with the value into a cell display mode: gradient gauge (you can also do LCD gauge)

Here's one a little more similar to your example:

[albrechtflo-hg]

To make clear what multiple people already have said, of course has such a sorting to be done in the Panel. Please note that the panel does perform a calculation (it even is labelled "Calculate") when it e.g. takes the "last" value of each series. So, if you want to order by that calculated value, this is the correct place to do it.

[justinTM]

figured it out. using sort() function in query fails silently unless you override Instant toggle to true.

[jgagnon44]

I tried sorting the result in the PromQL and it does sort as needed there ... but that sorting is ignored once displayed in the bar gauge in Grafana.
The "sort by" transformation does not allow for the value to be selected, which is what I need to sort by.
Why has this not been thought of?

[torkelo]

@jgagnon44 strange, the Bar gauge panel does no sorting, so should display the data in the same order it's coming from the query

[BigOneDroum]

Ok I find a solution :

1 - Make a Table
2 - In the "transform" select the fields you want to display an use the "Sort by" on the value you want to sort.
3 - Overrinde the feild you had sort and "Cell options =>Cell type" select Gauge

I use grafana 10

[govindrai]

Something doesn't add up. if I use sort_desc on my query and promql returns results sorted by value, why would the guage go out of it's way to display results differently?

[HighPriest]

Here is my solution.
The most important settings are for the query: "Table" & "Instant".
For the panel: Value Options->All Values & Value Options->Fields: the metric you are interested in.

Then we can sort by the metric.
Panel code:

{
  "datasource": {
    "type": "prometheus",
    "uid": "cae1b9fc-5054-4994-bdcc-299ae73ca914"
  },
  "fieldConfig": {
    "defaults": {
      "mappings": [],
      "thresholds": {
        "mode": "percentage",
        "steps": [
          {
            "color": "red",
            "value": null
          },
          {
            "color": "#EAB839",
            "value": 90
          },
          {
            "color": "green",
            "value": 100
          }
        ]
      },
      "color": {
        "mode": "thresholds"
      },
      "decimals": 0,
      "links": [
        {
          "targetBlank": true,
          "title": "http://${__data.fields.instance}",
          "url": "http://${__data.fields.instance}"
        }
      ],
      "max": 172800000,
      "min": 0,
      "unit": "ms"
    },
    "overrides": []
  },
  "gridPos": {
    "h": 8,
    "w": 3,
    "x": 16,
    "y": 6
  },
  "id": 14,
  "options": {
    "reduceOptions": {
      "values": true,
      "calcs": [
        "lastNotNull"
      ],
      "fields": "/^Value$/"
    },
    "orientation": "horizontal",
    "displayMode": "gradient",
    "valueMode": "color",
    "showUnfilled": true,
    "minVizWidth": 0,
    "minVizHeight": 10
  },
  "pluginVersion": "10.1.1",
  "targets": [
    {
      "datasource": {
        "type": "prometheus",
        "uid": "cae1b9fc-5054-4994-bdcc-299ae73ca914"
      },
      "editorMode": "code",
      "exemplar": false,
      "expr": "sysUpTime{job=\"SNMP\"}",
      "format": "table",
      "instant": true,
      "interval": "",
      "legendFormat": "__auto",
      "range": false,
      "refId": "A"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Switch_Uptime",
  "transformations": [
    {
      "id": "sortBy",
      "options": {
        "fields": {},
        "sort": [
          {
            "field": "Value"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "type": "bargauge"
}

[sd-matt-b]

Something doesn't add up. if I use sort_desc on my query and promql returns results sorted by value, why would the guage go out of it's way to display results differently?

If you tried a sort_desc query in the Prometheus UI, it will force the query to use instant vectors. To prove this, paste that query into the Grafana panel and turn the "instant" toggle on. Refresh and you should see your results are sorted. These results should 1:1 match the results in the Prometheus UI even if you're not explicitly using instant vectors in the Prometheus UI. Toggling the "instant" toggle off in your panel, and then refreshing, would probably show more accurate values based on how your query was written verbatim.

I'm frustrated that there's no functionality built into Grafana to help me sort the results of a non-instant vector query with Prometheus! It's right there, it feels so close to what I want -- but the information I really need is obscured when using instant vectors!

[kuzdogan]

If you were doing the same thing as me, the problem was you had a reduced Total each in a different table.

Instead you need to reduce different tables (ie. labels) into a single table with a "Series to Rows" reducer and sort with the "Total" field

[geira]

In Time Series panels, users can sort interactively by name, mean, max and whatever other columns are present. It would be natural to expect similar functionality for bar graphs/gauges as well, instead of only one fixed sort order. For day-to-day operations it would e.g. be convenient to sort by max disk usage percentage, but when trying to find a specific server you might want to change to alphabetical sorting by server name.

[AK00077]

Here's a really easy way to do this in the Bar gauge visualization. Under Query settings, click on Functions + Filter > TOP. To include all values, click precisely on top of number '5' in the new function once it's added, then change it to something that exceeds all possible values, like 100. Done!

[shufps]

after trying to sort via transforms I figured out that it just works by adding sort_desc(...) to my prometheus query 🥳

Not sure why SortBy Transform didn't give me any option to sort by value.