# Sorting multiple in-text citations on date, then author

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/sorting-multiple-in-text-citations-on-date-then-author/411>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [January 17, 2008, 9:31am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/sorting-multiple-in-text-citations-on-date-then-author/411 "2008-01-17T09:31:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Martin\_Lind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Martin\_Lind](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Martin_Lind)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2008, 9:31am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/sorting-multiple-in-text-citations-on-date-then-author/411/1 "2008-01-17T09:31:31Z")

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I am making a new csl style based upon apa (dev) since that style is said to  
be the best style to use as a template.

However, for multiple in-text citations (within a bracket), my journal  
prefer to have them sorted on date first, then author (e.g. (Rose, 2005;  
Mallet, 2007), NOT (Mallet, 2007; Rose, 2005)).

I suppose that the call within is doing the job, but  
simply changing the macro to call to issued didn’t (of cource) the trick.  
Unfortunately, I have found no other existing style that sorts the in text  
citations on year first priority, so I have not been able to borrow the  
proper code from elsewhere.

How do I solve my problem?

Regards  
Martin

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/sorting-multiple-in-text-citations-on-date-then-author/411/2 "2008-01-18T11:20:35Z")

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Martin Lind wrote:

> I suppose that the call within is doing the job, but  
> simply changing the macro to call to issued didn’t (of cource) the  
> trick… How do I solve my problem?

a) confirm your “issued” macro is correct (does the year get printed  
correctly?)

b) if it is, and it still doesn’t work correctly in Zotero, then it’s a  
bug (or missing feature) in Zotero; report bug there. But I’d first see  
what happens if you change from calling the macro “issued” to instead  
calling the variable. I doubt it’d make any difference, but worth trying.

Bruce