# Feature Request - Export $loop() default sorting
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 11, 2025, 7:02am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118 "2025-11-11T07:02:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Oblio](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Oblio)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 7:02am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/1 "2025-11-11T07:02:18Z")
I am writing an Autohotkey script to create an export mte file from columns.ini for a quick way of exporting the currently enabled columns to Excel.
The only thing I can’t get working is to keep the current track list order.
Could you make the $loop() function default to sorting by track list order when no field is specified?
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 7:04am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/2 "2025-11-11T07:04:21Z")
> [@Oblio](#):
>
> $loop() function default to sorting by track list order
Try `$loop(1)` to get the order as sorted in the selected files
---
### Author:  [@Oblio](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Oblio)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 7:07am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/3 "2025-11-11T07:07:09Z")
Works! Thank you! 🙂
Undocumented feature?
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 7:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/4 "2025-11-11T07:19:34Z")
> [@Oblio](#):
>
> Undocumented feature?
The [documentation](https://docs.mp3tag.de/export/#export-scripting-functions) says:
`$loop(%fieldname%,num)` Starts a new loop. The loop data is sorted by the given field name. The optional second parameter limits the loop output to a certain number of entries. This is useful to eliminate duplicate records (`num`=1)
Admittedly, it is not very obvious but if you do not set a fieldname, then there is nothing to sort by and the order is taken as it is.
---
### Author:  [@Oblio](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Oblio)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 7:30am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/5 "2025-11-11T07:30:01Z")
It looks like you can put anything in there as long as it’s not a valid field name or blank. e.g. $loop(%%) works and $loop(dfkhgkjhgkjhg) works.
I still think it’s a good idea to make $loop() work the same way.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:30pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-export-loop-default-sorting/70118/6 "2026-02-09T12:30:23Z")