text sortType

[Peter Haworth]

Overall, I'd be inclined to use your solution Geoff - much easier to read
whereas the others are the type of thing where you come back to it in a few
months (or someone else looks at it the next day) and you think "what the
hell is that!"


Pete
lcSQL Software <http://www.lcsql.com>


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Geoff Canyon <gcanyon at gmail.com> wrote:

> Interesting -- this works in one line:
>
>    sort lines of x by word 1 to -2 of item 1 of each & char -10 to -1 of
> ("0000000000" & word -1 of item 1 of each)
>
> I'm a little put off by not using the native "numeric" -- I'd be worried
> that something I'm not thinking of right now would break it. But
> nevertheless, it works.
>
> I timed three options and found that (on the sample I tried --  1 million
> lines)
>
>    sort lines of x numeric by word -1 of item 1 of each
>    sort lines of x by word 1 to -2 of item 1 of each
>
> is fastest, barely.
>
>    sort lines of x by word 1 to -2 of item 1 of each & char -10 to -1 of
> ("0000000000" & word -1 of item 1 of each)
>
> is just slightly slower.
>
>    sort lines of x by sortKey(item 1 of each)
>
> with
>
> function sortKey X
>    return ((word 1 to -2 of X) & (char -10 to -1 of ("0000000000" & word -1
> of X)))
> end sortKey
>
> was slower, but only by about 1.4 times.
>
> gc
>
>
> On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> wrote:
>
> > Whoops, I didn't read Peter's solution all the way.
> >
> > I guessed at what he was doing instead of giving it the attention it
> > deserved.
> >
> > I guess my thumbs up was for using the sorting value function and for
> > putting in zero digits.
> >
> > I would (off the top of my head) simplify (and change) that to this:
> >
> > function reformatLine pL
> >   get item 1 of it
> >   return (word 1 to -2 of it) && char -6 to -1 of ("000000" & word -1 of
> > it)
> > end reformatLine
> >
> > By adding leading zeros for a fixed length, a text sort is the same as a
> > number sort.
> >
> > A 3rd solution is to put fixed length numerals in the last word of the
> > original data.
> >
> > (I could try using the *s as an excuse, but it is not a good excuse,
> sorry
> > for commenting after only a glance.)
> >
> > Dar
> >
> >
> > On May 28, 2013, at 1:51 PM, Dar Scott wrote:
> >
> > > I think this and Geoff's are good!  This one is more general if you can
> > come up with some sort of metric or sortvalue for each item/list.
>  Geoff's
> > is simpler for this case.  The speed difference will depend on the length
> > of the list.
> > >
> > > Shouldn't the zero be put 'before' instead of 'after' to force a
> > numerical sort?
> > >
> > > Also, there is a shortcut.
> > >
> > > put char -6 to -1 of ("000000" & tKey) into tKey
> > >
> > > Dar
> > >
> > >
> > > On May 28, 2013, at 1:41 PM, Peter Haworth wrote:
> > >
> > >> The following worked for me (with apologies ofr any asterisks that may
> > be
> > >> inserted into the script by my email client)
> > >>
> > >> It assumes there won;t be any numbers > 6 digits.
> > >>
> > >> *on* mouseUp
> > >>
> > >>  *sort* lines of field "Field" by reformatLine(each)
> > >>
> > >> *end* mouseUp
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> *function* reformatLine l
> > >>
> > >>  *local* tKey
> > >>
> > >>  *put* word 1 to -2 of item 1 of l into tKey
> > >>
> > >>  *repeat* 6-the length of word -1 of item 1 of l
> > >>
> > >>     *put* zero after tKey
> > >>
> > >>  *end* *repeat*
> > >>
> > >>  *put* word -1 of item 1 of l after tKey
> > >>
> > >>  *return* tKey
> > >>
> > >> *end* reformatLine
> > >>
> > >> Pete
> > >> lcSQL Software <http://www.lcsql.com>
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