Group by heading in the same order as is the file

[benjaminwelch]

I love the sort by heading option. I'm currently using one file tasks.md to organize my tasks. Each task is under a heading that represents the area/project. When I use this query:

not done
filter by function task.file.path === 'notes/tasks.md'
group by heading

The headings are sorted somehow but not in the order they appear in my tasks note. Is there a way to explicitly set the order of the headings? I did find one solution on the Obsidian forum: using comments but this isn't ideal as the comments show up in links and other unexpected places.

I looked through the documentation/forum/discussions for a better solution but couldn't find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[claremacrae]

Hi @benjaminwelch, the best I can suggest with existing code is that when I care about the order of headings in a file, I use the Number Headings Plugin to number my headings, so that the group names then sort naturally.

If you are confident with typescript and are willing to experiment with the Obsidian API, you could get the file's headings (as HeadingCache) from the CachedMetadata and construct some string with line numbers in commented-out text to control the sorting.

Due to the volume of requests received, I do not have time any more to write custom search instructions for people.

However, here is some experimental code as a starting point:

group by function \
    const taskFileCache = app.metadataCache.getCache(task.file.path); \
    const frontMatter = taskFileCache.frontmatter; \
    // You would want to get headings instead of frontmatter.....

    if (!frontMatter) return 'AAA No front matter'; \
    if (frontMatter['tags'] === null) return 'AAA Tags is null'; \
    if (frontMatter['tags'] === undefined) return 'AAA Tags is undefined'; \
    if (frontMatter['tags'].length === 0) return 'AAA Tags is empty array'; \
    if (frontMatter['tags'] === '') return 'AAA Tags is empty string'; \
    return frontMatter['tags'] ? frontMatter['tags'] : 'None';

[benjaminwelch]

Hi @claremacrae, thanks so much for this response. I'm not confident with typescript (or JavaScript) but this gives me something to try out and I'll give it go.

[einbequemesbrot]

Hi @benjaminwelch, have you found a solution?
I'm trying to do the same thing.

[benjaminwelch]

@einbequemesbrot Unfortunately, I haven't. Well, not a great solution. The best I could find is that you can use JS comments like this %%1%% at the beginning of the headings and this will make it the first one. Not the most elegant solution but it works until I find a better way to do it.

[einbequemesbrot]

@benjaminwelch thanks for the fast answer! Shame, but the workaround you suggested works for me too.
I will continue tinkering, if I do find a more elegant solution I'll update here.

[claremacrae]

@einbequemesbrot perhaps you have not seen my new answer below? No more tinkering is needed….

[claremacrae]

This is now possible with a custom grouping instruction, using an undocumented change included in Tasks 7.7.0.

group by function \
    const allHeadings = task.file.cachedMetadata?.headings; \
    if (!allHeadings) return ''; \
    const headingInfo = allHeadings.find((h) => h.heading === task.heading); \
    return `%%${headingInfo.position.start.line}%% ${task.heading}`;

It's undocumented because I'm not yet happy with usability - but there are no plans to change it...

So, if you use this and it stops working in future, leave a message here and I'll provide an updated version.

[claremacrae]

It works by programmatically doing what @benjaminwelch's answer did, by putting the heading's line number in a hidden comment to control the sort order.