Why Tableau sorts the way it does (Ross Bunker post):

http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/182650#182650

Nested Sort
http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/nestedsorting
http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/sorting-concepts-related-quick-table-calculations

Dynamic sort:
http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/2011/11/dynamic-sorting-with-tableau.html

find top N within category (using a set):
http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/finding-top-n-within-category
can also use Index() instead of a Running Total of # of Records
this also shows how to do a nested sort

Top N within a Category:
http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/knowledge-base/computed-sets

Just show top N lines, using filter within IF statement within Top N filter:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/119057

Find Top N based on most recent results:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/117576?start=15&tstart=0

Show Top N, then put everyone else in an “other” group

Long thread on how to do this:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/109093

another thread on this:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/114541

easy top N and bottom N via v8 sets:

http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/205502#205502

 

Top N filter and order of filter application
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/115792

some complex sorting within table calcs
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/109013

Sorting or ranking within a dimension, with some funky stuff with groups and colors
http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/172626#172626

Sorting an “Other” dimension member at the end of a list, post by Andy Kriebel w/useful comment from Joe Mako at the bottom:
http://vizwiz.blogspot.com/2013/09/othersort.html

Sorting a view by a table calc

– create the table calc
– create a calculation that uses the table calc to generate something that Tableau’s default sort will work just fine with, e.g. low to high numbers
– put the calculation on the Rows shelf
– set the calculation to Discrete
– drag the blue pill to the leftmost position on the Rows shelf
– uncheck Show Header for that pill

Example from a forum post I created:

http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/175836#175836

Example from Joe Mako, for making a fake color legend that sorts based on a measure:
http://vimeo.com/20815794

Standard Rank, Standard Competition Rank

James Baker post:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/108967

Show top results with >N% of total, everything else as other
http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/AcceleratedStackedPercentofTotal/AcceleratedStackedofTotal

Top 25%/bottom 25%
http://community.tableausoftware.com/message/183972#183972
(Joe’s workbook is another example of “partitioning” by table calculations)\

Another partitioning by table calc workbook:
http://community.tableausoftware.com/thread/118445

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