org-sort-entries recursively

Question

A natural approach to sorting an outline recursively would be the following:

(org-map-entries (lambda ()
                   (org-sort-entries nil ?f 'my/sort-function)
                   nil 'tree)

This doesn't work; it stops after sorting the top-level heading because org-sort-entries throws an error on any leaf node:

user-error: Nothing to sort

Do any alternatives exist?

Answer 1

I've convinced myself that my particular example should be treated as a bug since no explicitly recursive sorting mechanism appears to exist. In a pinch you can use the following:

(org-map-entries (lambda ()
                         (condition-case x
                             (org-sort-entries nil ?f 'my/sort-function)
                           (user-error)))
                       nil 'tree)

I'm going to submit it as a bug unless someone suggests a compelling explanation otherwise.

Answer 2

I came to this question looking for a simple way to sort all the headings in an Org buffer, recursively. Building on the answer by @ebpa, this is what I came up with:

(defun org-sort-buffer ()
  "Sort all entries in the current buffer, recursively."
  (interactive)
  (org-map-entries (lambda ()
                     (condition-case x
                         (org-sort-entries nil ?a)
                       (user-error)))))