[OT] reOrdering text

[J. Landman Gay]

On 1/16/13 9:06 AM, Richmond wrote:
> I have a socking great text file that reads in part something like this:
>
> Cook my cheese
> fishface1
> finish
> Shave my legs
> fishface2
> finish
> Paint my fingernails
> fishface3
> finish
> Wax my arms
> fishface4
> finish
>
> and so it goes for about 72 pages (!!!)
>
> Now what I needs is a reordered lilst like this:
>
> fishface1
> Cook my cheese
> finish
> fishface2
> Shave my legs
> finish
> fishface3
> Paint my fingernails
> finish
> fishface4
> Wax my arms
> finish

Assuming a field 1 with the original list, and a field 2 to receive the 
sorted list:

on sortData
   put fld 1 into tData
   repeat with x = 1 to the number of lines in tData step 3
     put line x to x+2 of tData into tSet
     sort lines of tSet by specialSort(each)
     put tSet & cr after tNewData
   end repeat
   put tNewData into fld 2
end sortData

function specialSort pLine
   if last char of pLine is a number then return 1
   if pLine = "finish" then return 3
   return 2
end specialSort

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com