Custom sorting question

Thu Apr 20 13:56:59 EDT 2006

I know this should be possible, but I'm having a heckuva time getting  
it to work.

I want to sort some data that looks like this when it comes out of  
the database, put into variable tRawData (the white spaces are tabs;  
the random characters are unicode data, waiting to be uniencoded into  
a field):

26	–±–∞¬¥–±—É—à–∫–∞	grandmother	–ë–∞¬¥–±—É—à–∫–∞ –∂–∏–≤—ë—Ç —É –Ω–∞—Å  
–≤ –∫–≤–∞—Ä—Ç–∏¬¥—Ä–µ.	grandma
54	–±—Ä–∞—Ç	brother	–≠¬¥—Ç–æ –º–æ–∏¬¥ –±—Ä–∞—Ç –∏ —Å–µ—Å—Ç—Ä–∞¬¥.	 
brother
110	–≤–Ω—É–∫	grandson	–í–æ—Ç –º–æ–π –¥–µ¬¥–¥—É—à–∫–∞. –°–∞¬¥—à–∞ —Ç–æ¬ 
¥–∂–µ –µ–≥–æ¬¥ –≤–Ω—É–∫.	grandson
111	–≤–Ω—É¬¥—á–∫–∞	granddaughter	–ó–¥–µ—Å—å –∂–∏–≤—É—Ç –ö—Ä—É–≥–ª–æ¬¥– 
≤—ã. –ò—Ö –≤–Ω—É¬¥—á–∫–∞ —Ç–æ¬¥–∂–µ –∂–∏–≤—ë—Ç –∑–¥–µ—Å—å.	granddaughter
149	–í—Å—ë —Ö–æ—Ä–æ—à–æ,—á—Ç–æ —Ö–æ—Ä–æ—à–æ –∫–æ–Ω—á–∞–µ—Ç—Å—è.	All's  
well that ends well.	–í—Å—ë —Ö–æ—Ä–æ—à–æ¬¥, —á—Ç–æ —Ö–æ—Ä–æ—à–æ¬¥ –∫– 
æ–Ω—á–∞¬¥–µ—Ç—Å—è.	Allswellthatendswell
250	–¥–µ¬¥–≤–æ—á–∫–∞	little girl	–ú–æ—è¬¥ —Å–µ—Å—Ç—Ä–∞¬¥ –µ—â—ë –º–∞¬ 
¥–ª–µ–Ω—å–∫–∞—è –¥–µ¬¥–≤–æ—á–∫–∞.	littlegirl
259	–¥–µ¬¥–¥—É—à–∫–∞	grandfather	–ú–æ–π –¥–µ¬¥–¥—É—à–∫–∞ —Ç–æ¬¥–∂–µ – 
∂–∏–≤—ë—Ç –∑–¥–µ—Å—å.	grandfather
272	–¥–µ¬¥—Ç–∏	children	–ù–∞¬¥—à–∏ –¥–µ¬¥—Ç–∏ –æ¬¥—á–µ–Ω—å –±—ã¬¥—Å—Ç— 
Ä–æ —Ä–∞—Å—Ç—É¬¥—Ç.	children
314	–¥–æ—á—å	daughter	–≠¬¥—Ç–æ –ù–∞—Ç–∞¬¥–ª—å—è –ò–≤–∞¬¥–Ω–æ–≤–Ω–∞. – 
õ–µ¬¥–Ω–∞ –µ—ë –¥–æ—á—å.	daughter

Another variable, lSortOrder, contains the order I want the lines to  
appear:

259,26,110,111,272,314,149,250,54

I read the dictionary entry for 'sort container' carefully, and found  
a couple of sample scripts for similar things from old use-rev  
postings. This is what I came up with, but it didn't do what I want.  
I think it boils down to my not understanding how to create custom  
sort orders.

local lCount,lSortOrder

on updateList
   ## sort the rawLessonData by item 1 of each line, according to the  
term list
   put the rawLessonData of fld "vocablist" into tRawData
   put "59,26,110,111,272,314,149,250,54" into lSortOrder
   put 0 into lCount
   sort lines of tRawData by termOrderSort(each)

   -- do stuff with the sorted list
end updateList

function termOrderSort
   add 1 to lCount
   return item lCount of lSortOrder
end termOrderSort

Can anyone advise me?

Devin

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University