ACSORT


ACSORT version 16, Copyright Alan H. Clifford, 1996-1998


Description

ACSORT is a program for sorting data files on the Psion 3A.


Features

- Sort on primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary fields.
- Sort on words within fields.
- Limit length of sort string.
- Case sensitive, insensitive or "Folded" (ignore case and accents) options.
- Empty/non-empty field sort option.
- "Empty fields at end" option.
- Sort ascending or descending.
- Supersort option (see below).
- Saves sets of sort parameters.


Sort Parameters

An example database and an explanation as to how to create a sort
parameter set are included in the Zip file as Example.dbf and
Example.txt.


Supersort

Supersort allows fields to be marked in individual records in order
to override the default sort position.  For example, suppose the
"name" field in your database contained records as follows:

       Ben Clifford
       Maurice Clifford
       Rupert Clifford
       Alan Clifford & Family
       Margaret Clifford

A primary sort field of "last word in the name field" (use word 999)
and a secondary sort using "first word in name field" would sort the
database - except for one record.  ACSORT can be forced to sort on
"Clifford" by putting a soft hyphen (ctrl...hyphen) before the space
preceding Clifford in the offending record.

       Alan- Clifford & Family

The sort parameters would then be:

Primary sort:   Name field, last word (999), one word (1), case
                insensitive, supersort yes, ascending.

Secondary sort: Name field, first word (1), all words (999), case
                insensitive, supersort no, ascending.

To place the supersort character at the start of a field, just use a
soft hyphen as the first character - a space is not required.

Note that in the data application's normal "find" mode, the supersort
soft hyphens are not visible.


NOTE ON "SORT ON WORD" ENTRY.

0   selects the beginning of the field
1   selects the first word (ie it ignores any leading white space)
999 or any number greater than the number of words in the field will
    select the last word.

For long fields (more than 255 characters), only the first 255
characters are used.  This is a limitation I hope to overcome in
a later version.


Installation

It is suggested that ACSORT.OPA is placed in the \APP directory. 
Install the application from the system screen.  A list of files in the
\DAT directory will appear underneath the icon.


Files

ACSORT.OPA          The program
ACSORT.TXT          Documentation
EXAMPLE.TXT         A description as to how to create a sort parameter set.
EXAMPLE.DBF         An example database for use with EXAMPLE.TXT.
\DAT\ACSORT\*.SRT   A file for each database in the \DAT directory containing
                    the sort parameter sets. These are created by ACsort.
\TEMP\TEMP.ODB      A working file that is deleted when the application
                    ends.

The *.srt files created by the version of ACSORT prior to ACSORT10
are not compatible with this version.

Please note that this application can update all the records in a
database and creates a (smaller) temporary file with the same number
of records as the datafile.  It is not flash friendly!


History

ACSORT16
Added documentaion to explain how to set up sort parameters.


ACSORT15
Increased sort fields to 4.
Data file is compressed during saving if disk space falls below 5000
bytes. Sort ascending or descending.

ACSORT10
Added multiple parameter setups.
Data files with fields longer than 255 characters are now sorted on
the correct fields (however only the first 255 characters are significant
for the sort).
Fixed a bug in using forced line feeds as white space

ACSORT09
Added option to sort on empty/non-empty fields.
Forced line feed is now white space when isolating words.

ACSORT08.
"Folded" option added to case sensitivity.
Fixed a bug regarding 1 character fields in last field not being
recognised. 


To Do

- Option to ignore words such as "the", "an", "a".
- Include the entire length of long fields in the sort.


Contacting the Author

Email:  alan@coprolite.prestel.co.uk
        alan@donor2.demon.co.uk
Fido:   2:440/4.6

Latest version from:

Internet:  http://www2.prestel.co.uk/coprolite/
Fido:      Download or freq from Donor/2, 2:440/4, 01483 717905.


Disclaimer

Alan H Clifford provides this program "as is" and makes no
representation or warranty that this software is fit for any
particular purpose.