diff --git a/tools/perf/ui/hist.c b/tools/perf/ui/hist.c
index 37388397b5bc051b66dca810c65a4434eea07bb6..4ec79b2f9416aa220d0a016c53c8caad49fdeaa1 100644
--- a/tools/perf/ui/hist.c
+++ b/tools/perf/ui/hist.c
@@ -560,6 +560,10 @@ void perf_hpp__setup_output_field(struct perf_hpp_list *list)
 	perf_hpp_list__for_each_sort_list(list, fmt) {
 		struct perf_hpp_fmt *pos;
 
+		/* skip sort-only fields ("sort_compute" in perf diff) */
+		if (!fmt->entry && !fmt->color)
+			continue;
+
 		perf_hpp_list__for_each_format(list, pos) {
 			if (fmt_equal(fmt, pos))
 				goto next;