ACSORT


ACSORT version 0.10.K.  Copyright Alan H. Clifford, 1996


Description

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


Features

- Sort on primary, secondary and tertiary 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.
- Supersort option (see below).
- Saves sets of sort parameters.
- It's slow.
- But it's free.


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" 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, one word, case insensitive,
supersort on.

Secondary sort: Name field, first word, all words, case insensitive,
supersort off.

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.


Installation

It is suggested that ACSORT10.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

ACSORT10.WRD       documentation
ACSORT10.OPA       The program
\DAT\ACSORT\*.SRT  A file for each database in the \DAT directory
                   containing the sort parameter sets.

\TEMP\TEMP.ODB     A working file that is deleted when the application
                   ends.

The *.srt files created by the version of ACSORT prior to ACSORT07
are not compatible with this version.

The first time this version is used, it adds an identifier to *.srt
files created by versions 07, 08 and 09 (this is to facilitate
automatic file conversion in later versions of the program).

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

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

-      Increase sort fields to 5.
-      Option to ignore words such as "the", "an", "a".
-      Include the entire length of long fields in the sort.
-      Reverse sort.


Disclaimer

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


Contacting the Author

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