How to sort field from multiple Channels?

Question

I'm looping through multiple Channels:

{exp:channel:entries channel="channel_a|channel_b"}

Say that channel_a has a_field and channel_b has b_field. I want to sort such that the values of a_field and b_field are consider part of the same list. I don't want to, say, sort all the a_field first, then all the b_field next.

Possible to do this in EE?

Answer 1

This looks like a job to Stash!

{exp:stash:set_list name="channels_a_and_b" parse_tags="yes"}
    {exp:channel:entries channel="channel_a|channel_b"}
                {stash:sort_field}{a_field}{b_field}{/stash:sort_field}
                {stash:another_field_a}{another_field}{/stash:another_field_a}
                {stash:another_field_b}{another_field}{/stash:another_field_b}
                [...]
    {/exp:channel:entries}
{/exp:stash:set_list}

Then, on an embed:

{exp:stash:get_list name="channels_a_and_b" orderby="sort_field"}
    {sort_field}
    {another_field_a}
    {another_field_b}
    [...]
{/exp:stash:get_list}

Just, please, don't get addicted to Stash. I have seen a lot of unnecessary and complex uses of Stash around there.