How to alphabetize data?

[Karen1958]

Hi all,

Seems like this should be easy, but...in FM5, what script step(s) do I use to alpabetize a list within a text field?

[bruceR]

That's why you should probably be using related records instead.

What is the purpose of this field?

Is it acceptable if any duplicates in the list are stripped out? You can create a value list for the field and set the field to its value list. More details will be in order to make that happen, and if you really are using FileMaker 5.0 anyone answering the question will have to look back in history and find out which commands were available with that version. You would have some much better options in the most recent version but it still may be true that you're doing something design-wise that you shouldn't be doing in the first place.

[Karen1958]

Yes, I really am using 5.0. I've been able to write scripts to do everything I've ever wanted to do using 5.0 and haven't found the need to upgrade. I've also (almost) always found people to be very helpful in this forum when I've run up against something I haven't been able to figure out how to do before.

If anyone else wants to try to answer my question instead of telling me what I shouldn't be doing, I'd appreciate it very much. This is one small piece of a large project which is finished and functioning perfectly, but it would speed things up a bit on the human side if this particular list were in alpa order. If there really is no way to take a list of items inside a text field and manipulate it so that the list is in alpha order, I'd be surprised.

[aaa]

Hi, Karen!

I dont understand your question.

You have text and you want to sort all his words in alphabetical order?

If yes,idea is:

Create Calc_field=Replace(Textfield," ","¶")

Then create value list based on alc_field

Can you put here example what you want to do?

Edited September 5, 2006 by Guest

[comment]

I believe your anger is misplaced. It is quite difficult to sort values in a field by script (and it will be slow). If we knew your ultimate purpose for this, we might be able to suggest more reasonable alternatives. Bruce already mentioned one.

Telling you that data that needs to be sorted should be in separate records is not a rebuke: that's how Filemaker works. You can choose to work however you want, but in general, following an application's design philosophy is much easier than working against it.

[Lee Smith]

WAG, this is a manual value list.

If so, there are two ways to sort it, manual within the Edit Box, or Select it all and Copy it into a to a text editor, sort it, and then paste it back into your Edit Box.

HTH

Lee

[bruceR]

This is one small piece of a large project which is finished and functioning perfectly, but it would speed things up a bit on the human side if this particular list were in alpa order.

It will be much easier if they were in related records; and to that end it would be helpful if you answered the question and explained the purpose of the list. And yes, this is one of a zillion things that would in fact be simpler in FileMaker 7+.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Guest

[Fitch]

FileMaker 5 does have the ValueListItems function. If I read the original post correctly, your text field already contains a list. Therefore, you don't need to worry about substituting hard returns for spaces. Just use this:

Set field ( yourField, ValueListItems(yourField) )

Now, the downside of this is that if there are any duplicate items in your list, they will be dropped. In some cases that's a good thing, but in any case you should be aware of it.

[comment]

Hmm... now that you mention it: does FMP 5 have the option to use only related values in a value list? Or was that added in v.5.5?

[Fitch]

Yes, FileMaker 5.0 does include the option to use only related values in a value list.