Incorrect sorting on numeric columns in Discover

[lo78cn]

Kibana version: 7.7.0 and 7.7.1

Elasticsearch version: 7.7.0 and 7.7.1

Server OS version: Debian 10.4

Browser version:

• Firefox 77.0.1, Brave Version 1.9.80
• Chromium: 81.0.4044.138 (Official Build) (64-bit)
• Safari 13.1.1

Browser OS version: MacOS 10.15.5

Original install method (e.g. download page, yum, from source, etc.): apt packages

Describe the bug: When I click/sort on any numeric column, the order is not correct

Steps to reproduce:

1. create any Elasticsearch index that has one or more numeric fields (type: long)
2. create a Kibana index
3. create a discover view (add several columns including a numeric column)
   (by default sorted on timestamp)
4. click on column name to sort ascending
5. click on column name to sort descending

Expected behavior: correct numeric order

Screenshots (if relevant):

sorted on timestamp (default order)

time column ascending

time descending

Errors in browser console (if relevant):

Provide logs and/or server output (if relevant):

Any additional context:
Elasticsearch index mapping for this field:

"time": {
"type": "long"
}

Kibana index pattern field settings:

type: number
format: Number

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-app (Team:KibanaApp)

[lo78cn]

Issue still exists in Elasticsearch and Kibana 7.8.0 release.

[timroes]

Hi @lo78cn,

could you please go to "Inspect" in the menubar and provide the request that's send to Elasticsearch?

Cheers,
Tim

[lo78cn]

Hi @timroes, please find the request inspect files attached.

time_asc.json.txt
time_desc.json.txt
initial_sort.json.txt

Looks like this is caused by "unmapped_type": "boolean".

[kertal]

Thanks for the files. @lo78cn
A time ago multisort was implemented in Discover. So you could sort by several fields

#41918

What seems to happen in your case is, that when you click on a new column to sort by , this column is added to the sort. so its

1. sorting by the time field
2. sorting on the column you clicked on

If you want just to sort by the new column, you have to deactivate sorting by it by clicking on the sort icon of it's column:

[lo78cn]

Hi @kertal, thank you for your explanation.

Now I know, why I did not notice this useful multisort feature. We have a field called msg.timestamp that is being used as the @timestamp field in the Kibana index pattern. In this case, the first field In the discover view automatically is called Time. After the initial sorting, no icons are visible. When I click on the secondary sort field msg.time. The sort icon is only visible on the msg.time field. The request inspect reveals that the query is sorted by both @timestamp and msg.time though.

It only happens in existing discover views that have been created in 7.6.x. If I create a new discover view in 7.8.0, this default Time field does initially show the sort icon.

I could add the field @timefield to see the initial sorting. I can't delete the default field Time. Having those two fields, next to each other, looks kind of strange.

The real work-a-round here seems to be to recreate and replace my existing discover views.

existing discover views

new discover view