Enforce Custom Sorting

[#1]

Hey,

I have to enforce custom sorting to a table how can I do it. I want the table to be always in that sort order and it is not in alphabetical order. For example, I have fields in a table 'businessA', 'businessB', 'businessC', 'businessD' and 'businessE'. Now I need to sort in order as BusinessB,D,E,A,C . I want these fileds be sorted via loadscript. I did load them via inline load like

Tablename:

Load * inline

[businessType, sortorder

'businessA', 4

businessB', 1

businessC', 5

businessD', 2

businessE', 3];

and used =only(sortorder) while sorting but this doesnot get sorted once I used the table for cyclic group. How can I do this.

Regards,

Abha

[#2]

You can achive this by using "sort by expression". Attached the example, hope this helps you.

Regards,

Kiran.

[#3]

Thank you Kiran for the answer, but I have already tried that and that is not what I wanted. What I wanted was when this table is loaded it will automatically sorted in this manner without using any wizards or options via script may be.

Regards,

Abha

[#4]

Is sort by Load order option ok to you? Then you can use the order by in resident load.

Kiran.

[jonathandienst]

Hi Abha

If you turn the businessType into a dual, then it will sort automatically (by value). This is your example, converted to produce a dual field:

Tablename:

Load Dual(businessType, sortorder) As businessType

Inline

[

    businessType, sortorder

    businessA, 4

    businessB, 1

    businessC, 5

    businessD, 2

    businessE, 3

];

Now QV will consider businessType to be a numeric type with value sortorder, and text representation 'businessA', 'businessB' etc. See the manual for more information on dual values. I also have some information at my blog, here.

Hope this helps

Jonathan

[#6]

Thank you Jonathan, your script doesnot sort automatically in the sequence I originally talked about i.e. B-D-E-A-C .

I need the businesstype permanently sorted in this manner so we donot have to change in properties of any sheet objects but it automatically align itself in above mentioned sequence. Can this be acheived. Please guide me, I am fairly new to the tool.

Regards,

Abha

[#7]

Hi Abha,

If you want the sort order to be fixed at document level, go to Document properties->Sort. Select the field and specify the sort order. That rule will be applied throught the document where this field is used.

Regards,

Kiran.

[#8]

Thank you so much Kiran.

Now one more query what if these fields are from a database table, How can we custom sort fields from a database table in the B-D-E-A-C sequence ? or can we even do it?

Regards,

Abha

[#9]

Is the load order defined in the database or is custom?

Regards,

Kiran.

[#10]

Hi Abha, you can pull the "sortorder" column into your table, Sort it in Ascending order and Hide column sortorder...give it a try and see.