Tip for sorting tabular reports in reverse order

The scenario: let's assume that there is a report that displays data in a tabular form where each column represents a year. In a Hebrew display, the lowest value will be on the right whereas the highest value will be on the left; with an English display, the lowest value will be on the left and the highest on the right.

2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
12	13	14	15	16	17

The challenge: the tabular report must be sorted in reverse order, i.e. the highest value on the right and the lowest value on the left, in a Hebrew display.

What doesn't work: Priority offers the option of Ascending sort or Descending sort in a regular report; there is a field called 'sort direction' where one can add A or D. As reports have ascending sort as the default, there's no need ever to add A, but D does cause the report to be displayed in descending order for the given field. This option does not work in tabular reports.

The solution: let's assume that the year is being held in STACK4.KEY, just to make the explanation easier; the year could be in any integer field. In a tabular report, as this field is going to be the column header, it receives the graphic display value X, that will be sorted alphabetically in ascending order. One can also add a hidden field with graphic display value O that will overide the value in the X field - this is useful when displaying months so that 11/23 will come before 01/24. Alphabetically 01/24 preceeds 11/23, but if one uses a function like YEAR (SOMEDATE) * 12 + MONTH (SOMEDATE) as the 'O field' then the months will be sorted correctly. 

In order to display the table in reverse order, one needs to define a field with the graphic display value O whose value will be something like 3000 - STACK4.KEY. This will cause this field's value to decrease while the X field's value increases. If the X field value is 2023 then the O field value will be 977; if the X field value is 2022 then the  O field value will be 978. Thus the table will be displayed in reverse order, viz.

2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
17	16	15	14	13	12