I have a (fairly simple) report that wants to sort alphabetically instead of by the custom sort based on value list I've specified. What are the likely/possible causes of this?

Specifics: I'm doing a membership list for an organization with 3 levels of membership: voting, minors, inactive (V, M, I). The list uses a subsummary report that lists the members by category with a count of each category.

Subsummary part: fields: status (this is the V, M, I list) & count

Body: fields: name, mbrship date, status (V, M, I), serial#

The script that runs this first calls a subscript to find and sort the appropriate names (this subscript sorts first by mbrship status, custom: value list, then by name), then switches to the report layout and previews the results. Problem is that the membership categories are listed alphabetically, not by the value list: I, M, V--but I want voting members listed first: V, M, I. The custom value list I'm using to sort is the same one used for data entry (pop up list): V, M, I.

Any ideas on what to check or tweak?

Thanks,

RDecker

I should have mentioned that the layout/report is in an interface file and it pulls both data and the value list from a separate data file. (I suppose the vlaue list should have been in the interface or preferences/settings file, but I had it done the other way when I figured that out.)

RDecker

Sorry for the toss-off answer, but: why don't you just have it sort alpha but descending: V,M,I?

(I know, it doesn't address the conceptual question.)

Its a bug.

See:

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Number=110943

Oh! Thanks. I hadn't seen/remembered that post. At least it's not something I did wrong.

The other post (sugg. reverse alpha sort) will give me a partial, temporary workaround. (The actual situation is a bit longer--I simplified by listing 3 items, it's actually 6, so the order needs to be more flexible than a alpha will accomplish.)

RD