SORT()

The SORT() function is used at the start of a sort operation to create a sort variable that controls the sort process. The function returns a sort variable that can be used in subsequent sort related operations.

The flags value is formed from the items below. The token names shown are defined in the SYSCOM KEYS.H include record.

At most one of the following sort styles:
0	SRT$LEFT	A simple left justified comparison, examining corresponding characters from the start of each string until either a difference is found or the end of both strings has been reached.
1	SRT$RIGHT	A simple right justified comparison in which the shorter item is effectively padded with leading spaces and the resultant strings are compared character by character from the start until either a difference is found or the end of both strings has been reached. If both strings can be treated as integer values, possibly with a leading sign character, a numeric comparison is performed.
2	SRT$COMPOUND	A compound sort in which the two strings are considered to be formed from a series of alternating numeric and non-numeric elements. Numeric elements are sorted into numerical value, non-numeric elements are sorted into collating sequence order. If the first element is numeric, it may have an optional leading sign character. Sign characters appearing later in the strings are treated as being non-numeric characters.
3	SRT$RIGHT.FLOAT	The same as mode 1 except that the test for numeric items allows non-integer values.
4	SRT$STRICT	Similar to SRT$COMPOUND but elements that are numerically equivalent such as "28" and "028" are treated as being different.
Any combination of the following sort options:
16	SRT$DESCENDING	The result of the comparison operation is reversed.
32	SRT$UNIQUE	Duplicate key values are ignored.
64	SRT$NOCASE	Case insensitive sort.
128	SRT$DATA	Sort has the optional data element that will be used to hold a data string associated with each item in the sort. This flag is only significant in first flags item and controls use of the SORTADD data argument.

The following example shows a simple sort with a single key and no data. The first loop enters the data. The second loop displays the sorted results.

The next example shows a two key sort using a descending order numeric value representing a date as the first key and a case insensitive left aligned sorted client id as the second key. The client name is attached to the keys as a data element.