Category display sequence

How do I change the sequence in which categories are listed on the page?

From catagory-template.php I’m looking at:

function wp_list_categories( $args = ” ) {
$defaults = array(
‘show_option_all’ => ”, ‘orderby’ => ‘name’,

where ‘orderby’ changes the sequence. According to Codex you can order by name, ID, or slug, but none of these seem to work.

I appreciate your help