Custom category sort order

Hey there WooCommerce support & enthusiasts,

to change the default sort order of only a single product category we just used the good working code snippet…

//custom function to override default sort by category
function custom_default_catalog_orderby() {
//choose categories where default sorting will be changed
if (is_product_category( array( 'category1', 'category2', 'category3' ))) {
    return 'date'; // sort by latest
}else{
return 'popularity'; // sort by popularity as the default
  } // end if statement
} //end function

add_filter( 'woocommerce_default_catalog_orderby', 'custom_default_catalog_orderby' ); //add the filter

found at https://webhostingbuddy.com/blog/woocommerce-default-sort-method-for-specific-category/

Now this code works as charm, but it sets all “other” categories per default to a static value like in this case “popularity”.

This overrides the setting made in WooCommerce.

For this code to be not only super but ingenious we would like that not a static order like “popularity” is used when the initial categories don’t apply, but simply the order setting made in WooCommerce itself. That would be fantastic!

So does anyone have an idea how we could modify the code passage…

}else{
return 'popularity'; // sort by popularity as the default
}

… to something like “else return ‘order setting made in WooCommerce'”?

With many thanks in advance,
-doffine