The project that I was needing this for ended up getting postponed indefinitely, so I stopped exploring the solution. It's been a long time since I was looking into this, but if the thread tells the tale correctly, then the concept of proxy models should help you: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qsortfilterproxymodel.html , http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qabstractproxymodel.html . Wish I could be more helpful!