HP 3000 Manuals

SORT-MERGE/XL General Users Guide

Defining Your Own Collating Sequence 

You can define a customized collating sequence unique to your
application.  For example, in the section "Collating Sequences" in
Chapter 2, an example was used where an accountant wanted the special
character $ to follow the D in the collating sequence.  This makes it
possible to have $ INVENTORY follow DOLLAR INVENTORY but come before
other entries, such as EXPENSES.

To alter the standard sequence so $ INVENTORY follows DOLLAR INVENTORY,
but comes before EXPENSES, enter the following commands:

          :SORT   

          HP32214A.01.00  SORT/3000 WED, JUN  3, 1987,  9:30 AM
          (c) HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. 1986

          >DATA IS ASCII, SEQUENCE IS ASCII   
          >ALTSEQ MERGE "D" = "$"   
          >SHOW SEQUENCE   

               nul soh stx etx eot enq ack bel  bs  ht  lf  vt  ff  cr  so  si
               del dc1 dc2 dc3 dc4 nak syn etb can  em sub esc  fs  gs  rs  us
                sp   !   "   #   %   &   '   (   )   *   +   ,   -   .   /   0
                 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   :   ;   <   =   >   ?   @
                 A   B   C   D   $   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O
                 P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   [   \   ]   ^   _
                 `   a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k   l   m   n   o
                 p   q   r   s   t   u   v   w   x   y   z   {   |   }   ~ del

The following example shows the results of the sort with and without
altering the collating sequence for the entries $ INVENTORY, DOLLAR
INVENTORY, and EXPENSES:

          SORT WITH ALTERED            SORT WITH STANDARD
              SEQUENCE                      SEQUENCE

          DOLLAR INVENTORY             DOLLAR INVENTORY
          $ INVENTORY                  EXPENSES
          EXPENSES                     $ INVENTORY

A commonly used alteration to the standard ASCII collating sequence is
merging upper case and lower case alphabetic characters.  In the standard
collating sequence, all upper case characters precede all lower case
characters.  The standard ASCII collating sequence is shown in the
section, "Using >SHOW to Display the Collating Sequence".  To order
alternating upper case and lower case characters, enter the following
commands:

          :SORT    

          HP32214A.01.00  SORT/3000 WED, JUN  3, 1987,  9:45 AM
          (c) HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. 1986

          >DATA IS ASCII, SEQUENCE IS ASCII   
          >ALTSEQ MERGE "A-Z" with "a-z"   
          >SHOW SEQUENCE   

               nul soh stx etx eot enq ack bel  bs  ht  lf  vt  ff  cr  so  si
               del dc1 dc2 dc3 dc4 nak syn etb can  em sub esc  fs  gs  rs  us
                sp   !   "   #   $   %   &   '   (   )   *   +   ,   -   .   /
                 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   :   ;   <   +   >   ?
                 @   A   a   B   b   C   c   D   d   E   e   F   f   G   g   H
                 h   I   i   J   j   K   k   L   l   M   m   N   n   O   o   P
                 p   Q   q   R   r   S   s   T   t   U   u   V   v   W   w   X
                 x   Y   y   Z   z   [   \   ]   ^   _   `   {   |   }   ~ del

For additional information on altering collating sequences, refer to the
>ALTSEQ command in Chapter 6.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation