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

34 Chapter3

Using SORT/XL Interactively

Multiple Key Alphabetical Sorting

You can designate multiple key data items to break sorting ties. This prevents the

situation described in the "Single Key Alphabetical Sorting" section above, where there

were three ANDERSON entries in the ﬁle. Issue the following commands to designate

multiple keys for the ﬁle EMPLOYEE. Only the three lines of the ﬁle listing the ANDERSON

entries are shown:

:SORT

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>INPUT EMPLOYEE

>OUTPUT COMPANY

>KEY 1, 11

>KEY 12, 11

>END

PURGE OLD OUTPUT FILE COMPANY.GROUP.ACCOUNT ? Y

<<The SORT Statistics Appear Here>>

:EDITOR

HP32201A.07.17 EDIT/3000 WED, JUN 3, 1987, 8:29 AM

/TEXT COMPANY

FILE UNNUMBERED

/LIST 1/3

1 2 3 4

123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345

1 ANDERSON CHARLES SALES REP 3456

2 ANDERSON CHARLES PRESIDENT 0247

3 ANDERSON MARY ACCOUNTANT 6345

The two entries for CHARLES ANDERSON now appear before MARY ANDERSON in the list.

However, for the sort to be completely alphabetized the job title also needs to be

considered. To accomplish this you would designate three key data items with the >KEY

command.

To designate three key data items for last name, ﬁrst name, and job title, enter the

following sequence of commands:

:SORT

HP32214A.01.00 SORT/3000 WED, JUN 3, 1987, 8:30 AM