# How to sort a column of cell arrays, using the same criteria as my table?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, sortperm
**Created:** [June 27, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278 "2025-06-27T15:57:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leon6](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Leon6)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/1 "2025-06-27T15:57:04Z")
I have a table T1 with 1000 rows and 20 columns. I also have a column based cell array B with the size of 1000 x 1.
Here is my code to sort the table:
T1 = T1[sortperm(T1[:, 12]; rev=true), :]; # Sort by the depth values
T1 = T1[sortperm(T1[:, 2]), :]; # Sort by Station ID
T1 = T1[sortperm(T1[:, 1]), :]; # Sort by Expedition IDs
How do I apply the same ordering index to B?
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@Jeff\_Emanuel](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jeff_Emanuel)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/2 "2025-06-27T16:03:56Z")
Simplest is to save the result of `sortperm` and use it to index `B`.
```julia
p = sortperm(@view T1[:, 12]; rev=true)
T1 = T1[p, :]
B = B[p]
```
---
### Author:  [@Leon6](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Leon6)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/3 "2025-06-27T16:08:03Z")
Many thanks.
Do you know how to get the final sort index based on 3 sorting practices?
---
### Author:  [@Dan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Dan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/4 "2025-06-27T16:18:37Z")
Another method:
```julia
p = sortperm(eachrow(T1); by=r->(r[1], r[2], -r[12]))
T1 = T1[p, :]
B = B[p, :]
```
(didn’t really test this, but it should work)
---
### Author:  [@Jeff\_Emanuel](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jeff_Emanuel)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/5 "2025-06-27T16:20:45Z")
Is this what you want? It should give a primary sort by Expedition ID, then by Station ID, then by reverse depth.
```julia
p = sortperm(eachrow(T1), by=r->(r[1],r[2],-r[12]))
```
(Too slow, I got scooped by Dan)
---
### Author:  [@Leon6](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Leon6)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/6 "2025-06-27T16:28:35Z")
> [@Jeff\_Emanuel](#):
>
> `= sortperm(@view T1[:, 12]; rev=true)`
Thank you so much for your help.
---
### Author:  [@Leon6](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Leon6)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-sort-a-column-of-cell-arrays-using-the-same-criteria-as-my-table/130278/7 "2025-06-27T16:28:54Z")
Thank you for the solution, Dan!