Re: Item ranking system?

[Matthew Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>]

Ian Barton <lists@manor-farm.org> writes:

> Ross A. Laird wrote:
>> I'm sure there are many ways in org to accomplish my goal with this
>> particular project, which is to create a ranking system for items.
>> Here's the situation: I have about 200 items that I am evaluating. I
>> need each item to have a title, a tag, a note, and a ranking from 0 to
>> 5. Then, I need to be able to sort the items by rank, with items ranked
>> 5 at the top. I know that I can do this using tables in org, but I
>> prefer the flexibility of headings (some of the items might have long
>> notes attached to them, or links, or whatever). Also, I don't think I
>> can tag individual cells in a table, or operate on cells the way I can
>> with headings in org (move, refile, show and hide, etc.). So, I'm
>> looking for something that will allow me to have the best of worlds:
>> flexibility as with headings, and numerical sorting as with table cells.
>
> What about making them all TODO items and using the priority filed for
> sorting. I don't use priorities myself, so I am not sure if you can
> change A, B, C, etc to 1, 2, 3.

The easiest way to set custom priorities is to do so in the buffer. You
could simply add the following line to the top of the relevant file:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#+PRIORITIES: 1 5 3
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This line sets 1 as the highest priority, 5 as the lowest priority, and
3 as the default priority.

Then, once you have added priorities such as the following...

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* A list
** [#5] Some item
** [#4] Another item
** [#2] Yet another item
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

...you can sort them by calling org-sort (C-c ^ p) on the heading. (C-c ^
P will sort them in reverse order.)

The other option here would be to create a "ranking" property for each
item with predefined entry options. You would still be able to sort the
list, but you could also view it as columns and capture it in a table
using dynamic blocks. (Of course, you could also display the priorities
above in column view.)

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#+PROPERTY: RANKING_ALL 1 2 3 4 5
#+COLUMNS: %40ITEM %10RANKING

* Some item
  :PROPERTIES:
  :RANKING:  3
  :END:
* Another item
  :PROPERTIES:
  :RANKING:  1
  :END:
* Yet another item
  :PROPERTIES:
  :RANKING:  5
  :END:
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Best,
Matt