I'd like to create some drop-down lists where a user can specify their favorites to appear in their favorite order at the top of the list, and then all of the system-provided values would follow that (sorted in alphabetical order).

I created a calculated field that takes a repetition text field from the user preference table, and I concatenate it with a value list that has all of my system-provided values (just a lookup on a table). However, FM8 seems to be sorting the resulting multi-value text string that I'm returning before it pops-up in a dropdown list. So my entire purpose is undermined.

Any ideas on how to "turn off" this auto-sort that is taking place? Or other totally different ideas on how to get the user-sorted values to precede my system-provided values?

Thanks!

Unless you use a custom value list, value lists that reference fields will be sorted alphabetically.

See here for alternative

Here's another (cheap) alternative.

ComboVL.fp7.zip

Thanks for the follow-up posts. I too thought of the "inserting a space" trick for the alphabetical sort. It gets me part way to the solution, but the user's favorites still get sorted (as opposed to keeping them in their favorite sort order too).

I guess this feature just goes into the "unsupported by FM" bucket since I can't provide a script or variable to yield my "custom value list" when creating it in FM.

Not only user's favorites get sorted - ALL values are sorted (unless you know something that I don't). There's a somewhat more elaborate workaround described here, but that too is limited.

Sorry this appeared to be off-topic. I responded here because our NEXT step was the same thing the initial poster wanted, to create often-used selections at the top of an unsorted drop-down list. However, without solving the portal auto-sort, we can't get to that next step.

But to keep things on topic, I have moved the message to a new topic thread.

Thanks for your reply.

We want the portal data to be displayed in the same order it's fetched.

That's not going to happen. If a portal isn't sorted, the related records will be displayed in the sort order of the underlying relationship. If the relationship is not sorted, the default sort order - by order of creation - will be used. You need to look for some other method, e.g. entering your values into a portal to a third table, serving as a join table.

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P.S. This has nothing to do with the topic of this thread, which is about sorting a value list.