TypeError with Table

[whottel]

Description of bug:
Get TypeError when sample names are heterogeneous when visualizing results in a table. For example two samples named 123 and 456-abc.

MultiQC Error log:

Module custom_content raised an exception: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/multiqc-1.8.dev0-py3.6.egg/EGG-INFO/scripts/multiqc", line 440, in multiqc
    output = mod()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/multiqc-1.8.dev0-py3.6.egg/multiqc/modules/custom_content/custom_content.py", line 226, in custom_module_classes
    parsed_modules.append( MultiqcModule(module_id, mod) )
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/multiqc-1.8.dev0-py3.6.egg/multiqc/modules/custom_content/custom_content.py", line 272, in __init__
    self.write_data_file( mod['data'], "multiqc_{}".format(modname.lower().replace(' ', '_')) )
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/multiqc-1.8.dev0-py3.6.egg/multiqc/modules/base_module.py", line 332, in write_data_file
    util_functions.write_data_file(data, fn, sort_cols, data_format)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/multiqc-1.8.dev0-py3.6.egg/multiqc/utils/util_functions.py", line 78, in write_data_file
    for sn in sorted(data.keys()):
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'float'

File that triggers the error:
#contrived example, but should replicate error
example.txt

MultiQC run details (please complete the following):
Using singularity for docker image of multiqc found here https://hub.docker.com/r/staphb/multiqc
Run on HPC cluster running CentOS Linux

Additional note
Issue seems to be unique to table as using other formats, such as bargraph does not produce this error with the same sample names.
Also error resolved if first name changed to 123-abc

[ewels]

Thanks for reporting this @whottel - looks like I'm being a bit too clever with casting variable types in the code somewhere. Should be fixable by forcing strings for the sort step. I'll look into it when I get a chance 👍

Phil

[ewels]

Fixed, will go out in v1.9 shortly. Thanks for reporting! Let me know if you spot any problems with it still.

Phil