SORT-MERGE/XL General User's Guide (32650-90883)

Chapter 3 37

Using SORT/XL Interactively

Sorting Numerically

The last column of data in the ﬁle EMPLOYEE lists employee numbers. These were assigned

chronologically to each new employee. To obtain a list of all employees in the order of their

hiring you would proceed as shown in the following example:

:SORT

HP32214A.01.00 SORT/3000 WED, JUN 3, 1987, 8:35 AM

>INPUT EMPLOYEE

>OUTPUT COMPANY

>KEY 42, 4

>END

PURGE OLDOUTPUT FILE COMPANY.GROUP.ACCOUNT ? Y

<<The SORT Statistics Appear Here>>

:EDITOR

HP32201A.07.17 EDIT/3000 WED, JUN 3, 1987, 8:40 AM

/TEXT COMPANY

FILE UNNUMBERED

/LIST ALL

1 2 3 4

123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345

1 ANDERSON CHARLES PRESIDENT 0247

2 LANGE ROBERT ENGINEER 3235

3 ANDERSON CHARLES SALES REP 3456

4 CARLSON ROBERTA TREASURER 3586

5 ZIMMER ANDREW ENGINEER 5739

6 ANDERSON MARY ACCOUNTANT 6345

7 SMITH HOWARD DESIGNER 6794

8 TAYLOR HEATHER SECRETARY 7272

9 FISHER TOM SHIPPING CLERK 7309

10 JOHNSON FRANCES RECEPTIONIST 7943

To determine the newest employee, and obtain a list in descending order to the one with

the most seniority, use the DESC (for descending) parameter of the >KEY command:

>KEY 42, 4, DESC

The ﬁle COMPANY would now list Receptionist, FRANCES JOHNSON as the ﬁrst record in the

ﬁle and President, CHARLES ANDERSON, as the last record in the ﬁle.