How to sort Sharepoint discussion thread by the number of Replies

Question

Since this isn't available OOB, I tried sorting the discussion list using Sharepoint Designer, converting "Replies" to number using XPath..but it sorts it like a string (e.g., 1, 10, 11, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on...).

How do sort by number of replies properly?

Answer 1

The best general way to sort strings that are being treated like numbers is to pad them on the left with 0s. (e.g., 01, 10, 11, 02, 03, 04, 05...or even to 3 digits if you need to.

Answer 2

Used this solution! It works! Hope this helps others.

http://www.sharepointdev.net/sharepoint--design-customization/sortable-heading-for-number-datatype-4937.shtml