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From: mg2x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Andrew Gelman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Complex sorting in Supercard 1.5
Message-ID: <ccLG7FC00WBL00cG5M@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 17 Jun 91 20:55:45 GMT
Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 23

I'm working in SuperCard, but I think that HyperCard works the same way
(at least the older HyperCard).  I could be wrong, though, but I'll take
any clue.

I've got this stack that has four fields on it, F1...F4.  I need the
stack sorted by all the fields, that is first by F1, then by F2, etc.

Here's the trick.  F3 and F4 are sometimes text and sometimes numeric. 
If I do something like:

    sort by F1 & F2 & F3 & F4

I end up with the card that has F3 = "10" next to the card that has F3 =
"1".  It appears to be sorting by character, left to right.  Which is
right for text, but wrong for numbers.
I can't just sort numeric, because that doesn't do anything with text fields.

Has anyone run across this?  Can anyone see a solution?

Yours Alpha-numerically,
Mike Gelman  mg2x@andrew.cmu.edu
Programmer/Consultant -- Faculty Software Development Lab
College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon Univ.