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Recently, when using Ivy and calling completing-read, my output is being sorted (instead of showing up in the order passed in).

How can I prevent sorting the input to completing-read when using Ivy?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

You need your completion-table to tell the completion-UI not to perform sorting (typically because the completion-table already arranges for its own sorting to take place).

See C-h f completion-metadata. Here's an example:

(let* ((presorted-completions ...)
      (completion-table
       (lambda (string pred action)
         (if (eq action 'metadata)
             '(metadata (display-sort-function . identity)
                        (cycle-sort-function . identity))
           (complete-with-action
            action presorted-completions string pred))))
  (completing-read "Prompt" completion-table))
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  • This stops ivy from being used, is there a general way to handle this so ivy keeps working?
    – ideasman42
    Jun 3, 2018 at 6:16
  • Sounds like a bug in ivy that you might like to report.
    – Stefan
    Jun 3, 2018 at 8:56
  • @ideasman42 Stefan's answer works with Ivy. How is it not working for you? If Ivy still performs unwanted sorting, customise ivy-sort-functions-alist. See also github.com/abo-abo/swiper/issues/1611.
    – Basil
    Jun 17, 2018 at 17:57
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Sorting can be disabled by setting (ivy-sort-functions-alist nil), in the scope you're using completing-read (so as not to change defaults everywhere).

See this complete example.

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1
  • You don't need to set the entire ivy-sort-functions-alist to nil, only the the entries corresponding to the callers of completing-read.
    – Basil
    Jun 2, 2018 at 17:29

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