
                                   SORTING

    PC-TYPE+ SORTING CAPABILITIES

    ú You may sort the entire file or any set of adjacent lines
    ú You may sort up to 8 fields simultaneously
    ú The fields may be any length and may overlap
    ú Each sort field may be defined to be sorted ascending or descending
    ú Each sort field may be defined to be case sensitive or insensitive
    ú You may sort so that the lines of your text are rearranged based
      on the result of your sort or
    ú You may sort the information within a column of data only.

    All of these options are available to you with a few simple
    keystrokes. This file will show you how to use them all.


                              Press the PgDn Key

                             SORTING (continued)

    >Smith1         Normally when you sort, you block the area of interest
     Jones2         using the CtrlB keys.  (You may use AltL marking
     Adams3         also.)  We will do a simple column sort here to
     Brown4         display the simplest sort using the entire field
     aaron5         defined.  The default sort is case sensitive, that
     Duffy6         is, a distinction is made between upper and lower case
     Green7<        characters, and is ascending.
          ^
    Move the cursor to the right of the '>' and press CtrlB.  Next move
    the cursor to the left of the '<' and press CtrlB.  Now press F7 and
    select F6, "Sort in Column".  Forget the field marker for now - just
    press F10 (or the Enter key).  As you can see, the data was sorted
    only in the marked column.  "aaron" is at the bottom since this was a
    case sensitive sort and "a" comes after "S" in the standard character
    order.  Repeat the process but this time place a small "a" in the
    field when it appears above the "^" and press Enter twice.
                              Press the PgDn Key

                             SORTING (continued)

    In the second sort you performed above, you told PC-TYPE+ to sort in
    ascending order on the numerical data in the column in which you
    placed the "a".  In essence, you defined a "sort field" with that "a".

    There are four letters you may use to define the extent of each field
    of the sort:

    "a" -- sort this field  ascending and case insensitive
    "A" -- sort this field  ascending and case   sensitive
    "d" -- sort this field descending and case insensitive
    "D" -- sort this field descending and case   sensitive

    for example, if you wanted to sort the column under the 'x's as
    descending and case sensitive, you would place   aaaaxxxxxbbbbb
    'D's in the field as shown to the right.             DDDDD

                              Press the PgDn Key

                             SORTING (continued)

    >Smith          98044a   This time we will move entire lines based
     Jones          98090b   on the result of the sort.  Obviously, the
     Adams          98090c   text you are reading will become messed up
     Peterson       98044d   after the sort since we will not be doing a
     winbigler      98052e   column sort.  We will first sort on the zip
     adams          98090f   code in descending order, and then on the
     winbigler      98052g   names as case insensitive and ascending.
     winbigler      98077h   Block the area as before to the right and
     jones          98077i<  left of the ">" and "<" characters and press
     aaaaaaaaa      ddddd    F7 and then F5 ("Sort Rows").  Now place the
    "d"s in the field as shown and press Enter.  Then place the "a"s in
    the field as shown and press Enter.  You have just defined fields one
    and two.  Now press Enter again.  As you see, the entire line was
    moved, and the zip codes are in descending order and the names in
    ascending order when the zip codes are identical.  See if you can
    restore the original order.
                              Press the PgDn Key

                             SORTING (continued)


    It is unlikely you will ever want to use more than 4 sort fields, and
    most of the time you will only want to use one.  But as you saw above,
    it is very easy to define what you want to sort and how you want to
    sort it.

    If you do not mark a field but merely press F10 (or Enter), then
    PC-TYPE+ assumes the sort is case sensitive, ascending, and applies to
    the entire width of the blocked area.

    If you begin a sort and decide you really don't want to sort it after
    all, what else?  Press the Esc key!




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