Sorting colonies, ships, planets

While watching the AI play in my map I found myself sorting more than usual because it was not me building the stuff. I noticed that some of the sorts are still not working properly, such as colony by producing. I have not seen any threads on sorting since I came onto the forum, and a search on "sort" is not very productive, too many matches. Is there an expert on sorts out there who can post a summary to this thread as a FAQ on what works, what is broke, and how to get the most useful information by sorting techniques ?