I have a calculated field that is derived from three other fields, "Organization, Last Name, and First Name." The fields appear in the calculated result in the order shown. The calculated field might display as

Organization

or

Organization / Last Name, First Name

or

Last Name, First Name

depending on which of the composing fields have values.

The problem is that a sort, even when including only the calculated field in the sort definition, seems to always be based on the contents of the Last Name field.

I've been unable to locate any parameter in FileMaker which would produce this behavior, so here goes the old "Help" cry.

You're sorting only on the calculated field? Is it set to a result type of text? Please provide your calculation and an example of the data and sort order. Or just post the file.

I've gotta bow my head in shame -- I forgot to set the result type to "text." With a slight grump in my favor, I would think that Filemaker could (would? should?) set the default type according to the nature of the calculation and also give the user an optional reminder dialog at the time of submission of the calculation.