empty fields sort to the top (ascending)

[Slater]

Hi Everyone,

 

Apologies, as this must have been asked before (I have searched and browsed).

 

I have a portal sorted in the Length_of_Time since i've spoken to a person, with those most recent at the top. If i haven't spoken to a person, their field is empty. When i sort, empties go to the top ... https://www.filemaker.com/12help/html/find_sort.5.25.html 

 

Is there anyway to get them to the bottom, so that only those i've spoken to most recently are at the top?

 

(I was thinking a kludgey way of doing it would be to say that if i've never spoken to them, set the Length_of_Time to a huge number, but it's not that pretty!)

 

Many thanks for any help

Slater

[Wim Decorte]

To get the longest time at the top, you'd have to sort descending, and that would never get the empties at the top.  Or am I missing something?

[MartieH]

perhaps you could create another field that would start out with a particular value - not having spoken to them, then would change to another value when you do speak to them (this could be a calc that if the time field is empty then show one value; if the time field has data then show the other value) - then sort your portal using this field as well as the time field.

[Slater]

To get the longest time at the top, you'd have to sort descending, and that would never get the empties at the top.  Or am I missing something?

Thanks Wim! I don't think i explained my self too well! So lets say i have some people, and they each have the number of days since i've spoken to them:

 

John       5

James    2

Henry     100 

Fred       blank (have never spoken to)

 

 

if i sort Ascending, the files come up like this:

 

Fred

James    2

John      5

Henry    100

 

 

What i actually want is

 

 

James    2

John      5

Henry    100

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

perhaps you could create another field that would start out with a particular value - not having spoken to them, then would change to another value when you do speak to them (this could be a calc that if the time field is empty then show one value; if the time field has data then show the other value) - then sort your portal using this field as well as the time field.

 

 

Yes, this was the idea that i had. If (blank ; 100,000 ; time_since)

Then my sorting comes out as 

 

 

 

James    2

John      5

Henry    100

Fred      1000,000

 

which isn't too cool! It's ok, but it looks stupid.

 

As in the link that from my first post, filemaker say: 

 

Records with nothing in the sort field sort to the top of the list in an ascending sort. 

 

But it'd be great if i could switch it around.

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

[MartieH]

that's not exactly what I meant - what I mean is to create a SECOND field that would show a value if you had talked to them and some other value if you had not talked to them - perhaps 'A' if you had talked to them and 'B' if you had not talked to them - then sort with BOTH fields - sort FIRST on the calc sort field if you had talked to them or not - so that all those who had been talked to would show up first (since they had 'A' in that field)  and THEN by the # of days field (ascending) this should give you a list like:

 

James    2  (A)

John      8   (A)

Paul     15   (A)

Mike           (B )

 

you wouldn't have to actually show the (A), (B ) calc sort field, of course.....

[Slater]

create a SECOND field that would show a value if you had talked to them and some other value if you had not talked to them

 

you wouldn't have to actually show the (A), (B ) calc sort field, of course.....

 

 

Ahh, i like your thinking!

 

it's the bit about not showing the fields that is the bit i didn't know about - that's great and means that i don't have to adjust anything in the display.

 

Works a treat - many thanks