In a database I am creating, one field has "scene" designations for film production work. The designations are usually a number sometimes followed by a letter (1a, 3c, etc.).

I want to sort the field in ascending or descending order. The problem is, I've tried to do this and it seems to recognize the numbers but doesn't acknowledge the letters.

How should this field be defined? Do I need to have the numbers and letters in separate fields?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jim

If the field is defined as numeric, then the letters will be ignored. On the other hand, if you define it as text, it still won't sort the way you want unless the numbers have leading zeroes.

For example, a text sort could produce the following order:

1

10

20

2a

2b

2c

3

4

5

etc.

The simplest solution is to use separate fields for the number and letter.

Numbers in a text field will sort properly if leading zeros are used; i.e., 01, 01a,10,10a, etc. If your numbers go beyond 99, use two leading zeros for numbers from one through nine, one leading zero for number from ten to 99.