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