CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I have a custom search, the definition of which includes the lines:
$this->_columns = array( ts('')        => 'contact_id'  ,
                         ts('Name')    => 'sort_name'   ,
                         (etc.)


I noticed that the default sort field for the search result is the name field -- unlike Smart Groups, where the default sort field for the search result is the contact id.

Well, adding "order by contact_id" to my where clause results in a "Database Error Code: Column 'contact_id' in order clause is ambiguous, 1052" error.  Changing to "order by contact_a.id" (to match the syntax in the SELECT statement) results in a "You have an error in your SQL syntax" message (the generated query includes "order by contact_a.id ORDER BY sort_name asc LIMIT 0, 50").

If I change
   $this->_columns = array( ts('')        => 'contact_id'
to
   $this->_columns = array( ts('Index')   => 'contact_id'
I get the ordering I want, but of course I also get a column heading and value for the otherwise-hidden index column.

Is there any way to specify a hidden field as the default ORDER BY field?